Wal-Mart to eliminate health insurance benefits for 30,000 part-time employees

Wal-Mart, a staple of many rural areas, announced on Tuesday that it is eliminating health insurance benefits for about 30,000 part-time workers, "a move that the nation’s largest retailer says is aimed at slashing its rising health-care costs," Sarah Halzack reports for The Washington Post. "All Wal-Mart employees who work less than 30 hours a week will no longer be eligible for coverage, a policy change that will affect 2 percent of the company’s 1.3 million U.S. workers and about 5 percent of its part-time workforce."

In addition to cutting benefits for part-time workers, "the company also said it will raise health-insurance premiums for its entire workforce in 2015," Halzack writes. "Wal-Mart’s Senior Vice President of Global Benefits, Sally Welborn, said in a blog post that these were 'tough decisions' made amid a climate in which businesses of all kinds are struggling to deal with their employees’ rising health-care costs." (Read more)