Walmart Offers To Foot College Tuition Bills for US Employees (bloomberg.com)

Walmart will begin offering to subsidize college tuition for its 1.5 million workers in the United States, joining a growing list of companies that are helping employees pay for higher education as a perk in a tight labor market. From a report: The retailer's 1.5 million employees can now pursue associate's or bachelor's degrees in business or supply-chain management at three nonprofit schools for $1 a day, according to a statement Wednesday. Walmart will subsidize tuition, books and fees and provide support with the application and enrollment processes. As many as 68,000 employees might sign up, Walmart executives estimated. "Many of our associates don't have the opportunity to complete a degree," said Drew Holler, Walmart's U.S. vice president of people innovation, in an interview. "We felt strongly that this is something that would improve their lives and help us run a better business." The tuition program -- offered to part-time staff as well as full-timers -- is the latest move by Walmart to improve employee retention and engagement. A handful of other companies, including Starbucks and Amazon, also offer tuition support.

Comments

Know what else might help?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about paying a livable wage.

Re:Know what else might help?

[jellomizer]

Tuition assistance is actually more affordable.

Low Labor cost tends to go to the young where their livable wage is much cheaper ( often do not have a home or family to support)
As employees stay at the company longer they will normally get raises (especially if they are ambitious and hardworking) There reaches a point where their work ability exceeds what Walmart can offer. So Walmart is paying more for an employee then their actual worth to the organization is.

So Tuition assistance will attract young people trying to get a college degree, work at Walmart for 4 or 5 years graduate and move to bigger and better things.

So they keep employees long enough for them make the company money, have them leave on their own free will once they become too expensive to keep on board.

Walmart may not be a livable wage, however it isn't too bad for a introduction job without having any skill sets.
 

Re:Know what else might help?

[alvinrod]

Even minimum wage labor is often a major part of expenses. Consider restaurants where employees are minimum wage or potentially below that in jurisdictions where tips can compensate for wages paid out if they're above a threshold. The leading expense for a restaurant will still be staff, and even if you include the cost of sales with expenses, the labor will be as much or more than the food in most cases. That's why there's any number of restaurants that offer $10 all-you-can-eat buffets. It's no more expensive for a restaurant to give Americans (who can shovel down enough food to make one third of the country obese) as much as they want to eat if it means they don't need to involve wait staff or servers in the transaction. The automated system to replace that human labor isn't going to get high and not show up for work either.

Also, not all jobs can command a living wage for a given area. You make the mistake that assumes all labor is valuable. Should I be guaranteed a living wage if I want to fashion life-sized busts of president Trump from cow manure that I sell by the side of the road in western Oklahoma? You can only pay someone as much as consumers are willing to pay for their labor. If no one in western Oklahoma wants to buy a Trump dung-head, then my labor is not valuable at any price.

Money is merely a commodity and attempts to shuffle it around do not change the underlying reality that there is a certain amount of productivity and that the relative value of any labor cannot be established by fiat. Were that the case, the Soviets would have won the cold war and many Venezuelans wouldn't be facing starvation at the current moment. If you want the most impoverished individuals to be more well off, the only effective method is to increase the overall amount of productivity and wealth in the world. They will still be about as poor relatively speaking, but they can get a tiny slice of a bigger pie. That's why it's not uncommon to see homeless people with cell phones. Productivity improvements and technological advancements have made them so ubiquitous that their within reach of almost all of society.

Re:That's great, but ...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

For once, TFA provides the answers:

"offered to part-time staff as well as full-timers"..." Courses can be taken...online"...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-30/walmart-s-tuition-play-comes-as-choosy-employees-head-for-exits

And why might they want to pick the schools?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

The catch is that you can only apply to one of three schools.

Oh, you mean so:
  - They go to schools that the company know do a good job of teaching the skills they company needs for a decent price.
  - They don't go to one of the scam "school" operations that rip you off for big bucks and don't teach you squat.
  - They don't go to an accredited school that teaches left-wing politics, socialist "economics" theories, and that business (especially Walmart) is the enemy - rather than something you need to do and do well if you want to get ahead in one.

Re:And why might they want to pick the schools?

[b0s0z0ku]

The last one. Translation: they end up in a school that toes Wal*Mart's party line. Capitalism good! Capitalism always good! Braaaaaaawk! Braaaaaawk! Now be a good middle manager and help us step on your former co-workers.

Re: And why might they want to pick the schools?

[c6gunner]

Your comment is a perfect example of why this policy is important.

Re:How about a living wage instead?

[bobbied]

Living pay check to pay check isn't about how much money you bring in, but about how much you are spending in most cases.

I don't know who you think you are by being rational, but stop it! People don't want to take responsibility for themselves, but would rather make poor decisions and then blame someone else for the inevitably poor results.

Yea, I'm very sorry.. The whole "pull yourself up by your own boot straps" "hard work wins" message is quite hurtful to those who think the world owes them and will throw a riot, burring down their own neighborhoods to prove it. I know the pain they feel when the welfare checks get delayed or the WIC debit card stops working for 20 min and I just added to it by making them feel responsible for themselves, if just for a brief moment..