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Over a nice quiet dinner out with my husband we discussed the trending post-retirement topics inside our home this week. Financial independence city contenders for our desired lifestyle was one of the big points. Tinkering with viable long-term business ideas is another one. Then we talked about commodities trading and alternative investments.
Lastly, the much uglier topic was what would we do if our health became shaky or health care became even more expensive. If everything is going well, we much prefer to gamble for ourselves but life throws nasty curve balls. One of the most unfair of such curve balls is that wildcard healthcare. If we plan for children then the healthcare situation gets even riskier.
When I was in college, I joked to my ex-boyfriend Mr. Executive, that my dream job was to be a Wal-Mart greeter. I would love to spend every day saying “hey, howdy, hi!” to Wal-Mart shoppers.
Of course, I was also 19 years old at the time but that idea wouldn’t be half bad to get me over a rough spot. If it comes down to it, my husband or I could be your next Walmart greeter!
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Lowes
Lowes provides the same work benefits to part-time employees as to their full-time employees which is amazing. Full benefits include:
“Part-time Medical Plans, Pharmacy Discount Card, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short Term Disability, Critical Illness, Accident Insurance, Fixed Indemnity, Auto and Home Insurance, Vacation, Holiday, 401(k) Plan, and Employee Stock Purchase Plan.”
All employees have 30 days to enroll and coverage will begin after the new month after working for 30 days. Part-time workers can transition to full-time employment internally. On top of benefits, Lowes provide learning and career development in demand trade program. Awesome. Note: Home Depot (Lowes competitor) does not offer medical or AD&D insurance to part-time associates. They only offer vision, dental, disability, and life insurance.
Starbucks
Starbucks offer benefits including medical, dental, life insurance and vision coverage. 401k matching and free college achievement plan make Starbucks a great company to work part-time. In order to receive Starbucks benefits, part-timers must work 20+ hours per week.
Wal-Mart
Working at Wally World might not always be glamorous (unless you were me at 19) but their health and work benefits are a step up. Walmart pays about 75% of healthcare premium cost and 60% of total health care costs for all working and eligible full or part-time associates. Walmart provides: medical plans to start at $23.20 per pay period, dental, vision, spouse coverage, HSA, disability, illness, company discount, 401k, stock and the list goes on and on.
Amazon Fulfillment
Yes, Amazon Warehouse has received backlash for work conditions. But in a pinch, seasonal work and employees working more than 20 hours per week come with benefits like overtime pay, life and AD&D insurance at the time of this article. Amazon, like Starbucks, also has tuition reimbursement if they study-related fields in demand and relevant to a future career at Amazon. These Amazon careers include “medical technicians, paralegals, robotics engineers and solar panel installation professionals.” Well, that totally hints at what Amazon’s future plans are huh? 🙂 Medicine, robotics, and renewable energy? 😉
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Chipotle
All eligible part-time or full-time workers at Chipotle can get health insurance for themselves and their life partner. Dental and vision are covered for part-time employees and varying medical plans for individuals. 401k and matching after the first working year are available as well as tuition reimbursement for those that don’t want to work in fast food for a lifetime.
Costco
Part-time employees working at Costco enjoy good health care coverage (medical, vision, prescription, hearing, and behavioral) for them and their families. Other benefits include core dental plan, 401k plan, dependent care assistance, disability, life insurance to eligible part-timers who has worked for 180 days or 600 hours.
REI
Sweet deal, I didn’t know this about REI. As long as you are working more than 20 hours a week, REI pays for the majority of employees’ medical plan cost with the Flex Plan. With generous profit-sharing benefits, health insurance, disability, life insurance, traditional 401k and even tuition reimbursement among other perks, it’s perfect for a full-time student looking for a part-time gig. But you need to work at REI for more than 1-year part-time to qualify for their benefits.
Nike has part-time health coverage for part-timers working over 20+. I will refrain since there is no evidence that policy is here today except they do offer sick time for part-time employees.
JP Morgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase offers a benefits package that includes life and accidental insurance, medical insurance, reimbursement for tuition, child care assistance and discounts on in-house products as long as you perform over 20 hours of work per week.
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Trader Joe’s
This is my personal experience but isn’t the workers at Trader Joe’s are happier looking than a run-of-the-mill grocery chain employee? Starting salaries are higher at Trader Joe’s. Part-timers are eligible for medical, dental and vision at a small fee of $75/month and paid time off with more tenure. Trader Joe’s retirement match is at 10% of annual salary and annual salary increases based on tenure. There is also a 10% discount on Trader Joe products for in-store employees.
Whole Foods
Whole Foods provides part-time employees with a decent health plan and overtime pay for those working 20+ hours a week. Employees get 20% to 30% off your sale purchases which is great for spending if you are a student. Like Trader Joe’s the working environment is more relaxed and WF has a good 401k plan.
Federal/State/Army/Government
Generally, industries regarding the state and federal government as well as the U.S. army come with well-equipped perks. Joining the army reserves is one avenue for part-time employees to receive some healthcare and family benefits.
UPS
UPS is one of the few companies that provide full-time perks for their part-time workers. United Postal Service offers hourly employees full benefits in medical, dental, HSA, life insurance, stock purchase incentives and tuition assistance for getting Associates and Bachelor’s degrees. Very impressive and a win-win for part-time workers!
FedEx
Like UPS, FedEx offers competitive offers PTO and health, dental, and vision insurance, 401k etc. It is harder to move from part-time work to full-time for those working under 25 hours a week. But it’s an excellent way to build up experience right out of school for good benefits.
Barnes & Noble
Yes, we are all confused why Amazon has not killed off Barnes & Noble yet. But let’s hope they don’t roll over since part-time employees are able to receive paid vacation, sick days, and annual holidays. Furthermore, part-time employees can also enroll in dental and health plans after six months of employment.
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Nursing
Healthcare is naturally an industry that offers strong benefits to employees. One of the best perks about the nursing pathway are the hours you can choose to work as a nurse, traveling or non-traveling. Part-time perks vary depending on the institution but often include bonus pay, medical, dental, vision, retirement + matching for all employed nurses.
Aldi
Aldi skirts the definition of part-time and full-time. Working at an Aldi for more than 25 hours a week essentially means you are full-time which has full benefits. Anything less such as part-time has no benefits besides emergency days off.
This is something they never taught us in school when I feel like it’s one of the most important things to know. Please, please, please do not take for granted the ‘perks’ of a good job.
Without basic healthcare, retirement benefits, and respectable working conditions, it would be hard to build any wealth being exposed to the elements of real, raw, life.
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I am not sure it’s the same in Canada for some of the companies listed, but now you got me curious! At the same time, our provincial benefits are there for anybody living in the province (free medical visit, free medication for under 25 (for now), more free services depending on your income, free access to many hospital services…). It’s still nice to have the extra medical/dental coverage, mostly when you have kids (for dental!).
Looking forward to being greeted by Jared at the Walmart:)
Hahahaha. Yes Ma’dam he will be there!!
my dad was a national guardsman for about 30 years. it was 2 weeks a year training and one weekend a month i think. it was a great deal with pension and i think some health care into retirement. the bad part was when the government started send these 50 something year old weekend warriors over to the desert in the middle east to fight a stupid political war. so, unlike in the past where the guard was used for domestic purposes if needed, there is risk of going abroad and getting blown to smithereens.
Jesus! O_O
REI sounds good to me. I’ve always liked visiting, although I rarely buy anything there. Expensive.
Trader Joe’s sounds okay too.
20+ hours per week is actually a lot. I don’t have time right now, but maybe later…
I’ve never been inside a REI in my entire life!! Trader Joe’s probably my top choice – that and Lowes? Starbucks? You wanna work PT Joe?! After RB40 jr gets older right?
I wonder if I’ll get free food/groceries if I work at Chipotle, Trader Joe’s and Aldi. If yes, that’d be a big perk. One of my dreams is to work for a company that provides free delicious food one day 😀 Great list!
Just pay me in food!!! I agree 😀
Part-time work is a great idea for early retirement. Many now provide benefits. It is also extra money to keep adding to your Roth IRA. You did not include them, but Panera Bread offers some nice benefits. They promote having a solid tuition program.
Ooh I should add that! Great to know. I suspected as much because Panera has a great reputation for treating their workers better than…oh say Subway.
A great (and somewhat surprising) list. I’m lucky enough to currently work with pretty good benefits- it would be scary to be without health insurance, so it’s nice to know there’s places that will provide it for part time employees. And there’s 4 of the above locations even in my small town.
A side-bar on Aldi’s- I was talking to the cashier and she loves working there, because it’s one of the only places that allows cashiers to sit- there’s stools at their stations. So they have little perks too 🙂
OMG! That’s the SIMPLEST thing to do for employees!! When I was just out of college, I wasn’t allowed to sit at my side gig as a hostess!!! ARGGGGH whaat’s wrong with sitting as a cashier!!
OMG YES to the happy Trader Joe’s employees! I wrote about the same thing in one of my posts, so it must be universal haha. There’s something in the water there — or maybe it’s that they’re so glad they’re medically covered in such a big way!
This was a great round-up. I’m just in the thick of insurance talk right now because this is the first year I’m off my parents’ — yowza! There’s so much to learn and yet it’s so … how do I put this … life-sucking and boring? Woof. Adulting is hard.
They might have 4 piercings on their face BUT they’re happy people! Lol xD
Adulting is damn hard.
I worked at UPS during college and took advantage of the great benefits package they offered. I remembered when I quit the company and got a letter from them a few months after that said I have around $2K from the union and the only way I could receive this money without incurring any fees is to put it in a IRA account. At the time I didn’t know what an IRA account was but I still went ahead and went to a local bank that transferred that money into an IRA.
Oh yes IRAs are amazingly important to have!
Let me in chipotle LOL!
I’m eating all the food and and enjoying all the chips and guac lol. This subject though is actually very serious… my brother had a very unfortunate event losing a new born baby…. there were complications through out the pregnancy, and his wife was literally on bedrest fro 3-4 months in attempts to save baby’s life.
Unfortunately, things sadly did not work out…. but of course at the time, and even now they will do it again to try to save their son… From what he told me, the total final bill was cost to a million dollars…. I can’t even begin to fathom that.
Luckily isurance covered the lion share of that through his job…. and this year they were blessed to have a baby girl.
Oh my, very sorry to hear that. Are they trying for more children ever? Congrats on your new baby girl!! It would have been devastating without insurance coverage yes. My family didn’t have coverage for 10+ years and we were 1 event from losing everything.
Great post Lily, nice info. Yes, Trader Joe’s employees are happier and they purposely choose them that way. They also have a pension for full timers believe it or not!
Cool, didn’t know that!
Healthcare scares the s.. out of me especially if we decide to retire here in the US. I’ve heard things like medical geo-arbitrage so I guess that’s always an option. In any case, I do like the idea of working for Lowes or HD (I’m into handyman stuff) as well as REI or Trader Joe’s. Thanks for sharing this list!
I would take Trader Joe’s and Lowe’s too. Any day over warehouse 🙂
Wal-Mart and Amazon Fulfillment actually made a list of positive business practices! Look at that 😉 But the Barista-FI option definitely seems a lot more intriguing when you don’t have to worry about healthcare.
I was surprised too. More reason to NOT work there FULL time 🙂
Every time I step into a Trader Joe’s I think, “Wow what a cool place to work I’d love to work here for some extra side money!” You guys are so lucky you have Trader Joes in the US!!
Haha this is so not the first time I heard someone from the Great North say they want our Trader Joe’s!! Why don’t they go up north!?
Great list of companies Lily! I would not mind working part-time for either Cosco or Trader Joes when I retire. If I’m not mistaken, Aldi is now owned by Trader Joes?
Oh really?!
Benefits such as health, life insurance are extremely important to everyone whether they have a job or not. Very helpful read.
Entry level work certainly has changed from when I was a kid. When I was a teen, I worked part-time as a supermarket cashier earning minimum wage and nothing else. That was $5.15/hour, and there were no benefits. Now? Starbucks baristas and Chipotle employees are getting dental and a 401(k). It’s nice to see low level retail employees are getting SOMETHING for their daily struggles in customer service. Even my cousin working at some liquor store has a 401(k).
Just about all the banks give comparable benefits to all their employees. When I started in banking years ago as a part time teller, I was amazed by all the benefits I got. That’s why as much as I hate retail banking, I always recommend becoming a bank teller to young people just starting out.
Sincerely,
ARB–Angry Retail Banker
I also agree with Nomad Joe…Health insurance should be our first priority while choosing any job. Thanks for sharing this amazingly helpful info.
Don’t believe the Walmart one. When I worked there I went in thinking I would get covered only to be told that health coverage only kicked in after you worked for them for an entire year. You have to go a whole year putting up with hissy fit Karen-customers and upper-management superiority bullcrap while dodging anything that could injure or sicken you and only then can you get on their health coverage plan.