Macy’s, Inc., on Tuesday (Nov. 9) announced it will be raising its minimum wage for employees to $15 per hour as part of a corporate benefits package that will also include debt-free tuition and raises for employees at all levels of the company.
The debt-free education program will launch in February, with about $35 million doled out to U.S.-based salaried and hourly employees over the next four years to cover all tuition, books and fees for high school completion, college prep classes, English language learning programs, associate and bachelor’s degrees, bootcamps and professional certificates within Macy’s debt-free network.
Macy’s is partnering with education and upskilling platform Guild Education on the program.
“As we continue our transformation to be a digitally-led omnichannel retailer, a critical component of our growth includes investing in our talent and enhancing all aspects of their Macy’s, Inc. experience with a strong focus on advancement opportunities, culture and engagement,” Danielle Kirgan, Macy’s chief transformation and human resources officer, said in the company announcement.
“As a company, we’re driven by our mission to enable our colleagues’ success and be the preferred employer everywhere we do business, with competitive pay and benefits rooted in principles of equity,” she added. “This program removes a major barrier to accessing education and will help our colleagues to further develop their skills and grow their careers and earning potential.”
Macy’s is also adding some flexibility to its time-off policy, with the addition of one flexible paid holiday per year. Last year, Macy’s added several bonus opportunities for employees.
Related: Amid Industrywide Labor Crunch, Walmart Rolls out First-Ever Driverless Truck Route
Meanwhile, Walmart is handling the labor shortage in a different way, adding fully driverless routes through a box truck pilot with middle-mile delivery automation company Gatik between a Walmart dark store and a Neighborhood Market, the retailer’s smaller-format shop, in Bentonville, Ark.
In August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said unfilled jobs in “transportation, warehousing and utilities” were nearly twice what they were in 2020. In late October, the American Trucking Associations’ Chief Economist Bob Costello said the industry is short 80,000 drivers, a number that could double in this decade.
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