Amazon picks up the college bill

The Future. Amazon is expanding its college-tuition benefits to fully cover a four year bachelor’s degree for all employees after 90 days on the job. The move is meant to entice more workers before the busy holiday season and provide relief for skyrocketing tuition costs. With several other major corporations doing the same, holistic career development may need to become commonplace if companies hope to retain their workforce.

Box up the bachelor’s
Amazon is enticing people to come to work by sending them to college.

• Amazon announced it will pay for a four-year bachelor’s degree program for its U.S. employees.
• Over 750K hourly workers are eligible after 90 days of employment.
• Additionally, Amazon will cover 50% of college costs for part-time workers.
• It will also cover costs for an associate degree, high-school completion program, English as a second language certification, and other unspecified programs.
• The program rolls out in January.

Amazon has already hired 400K workers — mostly in shipping fulfillment centers — during the pandemic, but is looking to staff up even more in preparation for the holiday season.

Corporate college
Amazon’s college credit is the latest move by the e-giant to attract workers. It has also expanded skill-training for employees in areas such as user-experience design and research. Ardine Williams, Amazon’s VP of workforce development, says that “career progression is the new minimum wage.”

Amazon isn’t the only company ponying up for college degrees. Chipotle pays for college for employees who work at least 15 hours per week after four months, Starbucks pays for classes at Arizona State University for those that work 20 hours or more, and Walmart offers to pay for classes and books for all of its 1.5 million employees. Just last month, Target announced that they would do the same.