| How funny! I'm in the Village Voice! FYI, "Whole Paycheck" is a snide nickname for Whole Foods... not a nickname for the store's benefits program.
As for the benefits, a high deductible health insurance plan kicks in after you've worked there about 6 months (800 hours worked), plus an HSA (health savings account) that covers the entire deductible. Whole Foods covers your entire family so long as you work full-time (30+ hours per week). You have an option to buy the health plan when you reach 400 hours worked (about 3 months), and then it becomes free when you hit 800 hours. They also offer paid time off and stock options for employees. These become quite generous once you've worked there for some time.
That said, I don't know how Mackey thinks Americans can afford to prevent health problems by shopping at his store when he doesn't pay his employees enough to shop there. Starting pay is $10/hour in San Diego, and that's not a lot of money. I might have struggled less if I wasn't paying $800/mo for rent and $200/mo in COBRA, but ultimately I couldn't make ends meet on a Whole Foods wage and I had to go back to work in a corporate job. |
