Dive Brief:
- Forbes.com reports that the CEO of Boxed, an online retailer that sells consumer goods in bulk, has decided pay for the college education of any children of Boxed workers.
- The offer is for tuition, not room and board or books.
- Chieh Huang is the latest CEO to do something to chip away at America's growing income inequality, Forbes reports. Dan Price, the founder and CEO of Gravity Payments, cut his own salary so that he could pay everyone at the company a minimum of $70,000 annually.
Dive Insight:
Boxed currently employs a little more than 100 people, nearly two-thirds of them warehouse workers. Huang told Forbes 12 children of Boxed employees could become eligible right now. That number could grow quickly, as the two-year-old company is expanding quickly.
"If you are the child of someone who works at Boxed, it's not the lack of money that is going to prevent you from going to college," Huang told Forbes. "We're building a long term business and if you are along for the ride, we are going to invest in you."
The question becomes how many more employers can begin to make similar offers, whether they are for college tuition bills, higher salaries or more generous benefits? It's a trend that may have to happen if the U.S. wants its middle class to make a comeback, even if in a small way. Also, the new generation of CEOs may have more in mind than short-term results.
