Business and Finance
CHIPOTLE INTRODUCES NEW BENEFITS TO HELP ATTRACT AND SUPPORT ITS GROWING GEN Z WORKFORCE
- The company’s new benefits prioritize financial and mental health
- For the first time, Chipotle is offering a Student Loan Retirement Match program and access to a special high-tech Visa card that can build credit for all employees
- Chipotle is looking to hire 19,000 additional employees for its upcoming “burrito season,” the company’s busiest time of year running from March to May
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Jan. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) announced today that it will be providing additional financial wellness and mental well-being support for more than 110,000 employees through a new Employee Assistance Program and enhanced benefits. The company will hire additional employees over the next couple of months to prepare for its busiest period of the year from March to May, which has been famously coined “burrito season.”
Chipotle’s new benefits will enable eligible employees to:
- Pay off student debt while saving for retirement: Utilizing SoFi’s Student Loan Verification (SLV) service, once an employee becomes eligible for Chipotle’s 401(k) plan match, the company will match up to 4% of an employee’s salary through contributions to their 401(k) if they make eligible student loan payments. The benefit solution, launched in response to Congress’ approval of the Securing a Strong Retirement Act (SECURE 2.0), allows employees who qualify to no longer have to choose between paying off student debt or saving for retirement – they can do both.
- Build credit through high-tech banking: Chipotle employees will have access to a premium banking experience from Cred.ai featuring a high-tech Visa card that offers security features, faster access to paychecks, and Cred.ai’s “Credit Optimizer,” which helps build and boost credit scores automatically, even for employees who already have good credit.
- Manage their financial wellness: Chipotle’s partnership with SoFi will also give employees access to the SoFi at Work Dashboard, a leading financial well-being education platform, which includes an assessment of current financial outlook, followed by suggestions and tools to improve.
- Access mental health resources: Chipotle’s New Employee Assistance Program (EAP), SupportLinc, powered by CuraLinc Healthcare, focuses on mental and emotional well-being. It includes six free sessions with a licensed counselor or mental health coach, as well as access to tools, resources, and community support for legal, financial, and family matters.
More than 73% of Chipotle’s restaurant employees are Gen Z, and these new benefits cater to the challenges they are facing. It has been widely cited that those born in the late 90s through the early 2000s are experiencing notable financial challenges, including racking up credit card debt faster than previous generations* and being nearly twice as likely as the general population to not feel confident managing their money**.
“Empowering our talent is embedded in our company’s culture,” said Ilene Eskenazi, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chipotle. “As we push toward our long-term goal of operating 7,000 restaurants in North America, it’s crucial that we listen to and adapt to the needs of our team members, so they can grow with us.”
Career Mobility at Chipotle
Crew members at Chipotle can advance to a Restaurateur in as little as three and a half years, with a total potential compensation package of approximately $100,000 while leading a multi-million-dollar business. Nearly 90 percent of current restaurant leadership started as crew members and progressed to management positions. In 2023, Chipotle promoted over 26,000 employees.
“Today we have many examples of crew members rising through the ranks and now holding restaurant leadership roles, which are among the proudest accomplishments of this organization,” said Scott Boatwright, Chief Operating Officer, Chipotle. “With 2024’s ‘burrito season’ approaching, there are more career opportunities than ever at Chipotle.”
World Class Benefits
Chipotle’s new offerings continue to build on the company’s best-in-class employee benefits, including competitive wages: an all-crew bonus program, which allows its restaurant employees the opportunity to earn up to an extra month’s worth of pay each year; access to mental health care and medical, dental and vision insurance; English as a second language for employees and their families; tuition reimbursement and debt-free college degrees; 401(k) with employer match; paid vacation and sick leave; flexible schedules, free meals and more.
Those interested in joining Chipotle on its mission to Cultivate a Better World can apply here: Chipotle Careers.
*SOURCE: Credit Karma
**SOURCE: Intuit Prosperity Index Study – January 2023
About Chipotle
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Chipotle had over 3,300 restaurants as of September 30, 2023, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants in North America and Europe. Chipotle is ranked on the Fortune 500 and is recognized on the 2023 list for Fortune’s Most Admired Companies and Time Magazine’s Most Influential Companies. With over 110,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. For more information or to place an order online, visit WWW.CHIPOTLE.COM.
SOURCE Chipotle Mexican Grill
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Lifestyle
A college course that’s a history of the future
The course “Science Fiction as Intellectual History” explores how sci-fi reflects cultural thoughts and anxieties, using stories to analyze technology, future predictions, and evolving societal ideas.
Adam Jortner, Auburn University
Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.
Title of course:
Science Fiction as Intellectual History
What prompted the idea for the course?
For most of its history, science fiction was a disreputable, throwaway genre. But sources of culture and thought aren’t just found in classic literature or in the writings of the great thinkers. They’re also in popular entertainment: movies, comics, pulp magazines, TV.
Big thoughts often come in chunks with labels like “The Future” or “Technology” or “Freedom.” And most ideas about these things are shaped by science fiction.
So in this class, my students explore how the theories of Charles Darwin, for example, are reflected in science fiction like “Jurassic Park,” “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” “X-Men” and “The Wrath of Khan.”
I’m lucky to be the third generation of professors teaching this course at Auburn. It’s an old staple here that I inherited.
What does the course explore?
I usually pick three big plot ideas from sci-fi: alien encounters, time travel and superhuman abilities. Then we trace the development of those ideas, primarily through American fiction.
Students might read H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine,” which was written in the 1890s and tells the story of the Eloi and Morlocks, post-human races from 800,000 years in the future; C.L. Moore’s secret visitors from the future in the 1953 novella “Vintage Season”; and Steven Spielberg’s 1985 escape to an idealized 1950s in “Back to the Future.”
These works all include mind-bending theories about what time travel might look like. But students also see how each of them tells a different story about the anxieties and obsessions of the times in which they were created.
For example, Wells’ novel is a vision of how thousands of years of Victorian class divisions lead to the evolution of a group of cannibalistic underground humans. In “Back to the Future,” Marty McFly leaves the dingy, broken-down 1980s for a clean and shiny version of the 1950s, one that looks much more promising than 1985. The film taps into the 1980s political and cultural nostalgia for so-called “simpler” times. (Of course, in their version of 1955, Biff and Marty never deal with segregation or Cold War nuclear panic.)
Science fiction offers a kind of film negative of history – a back door into what made people worried or scared rather than what was heroic. Sci-fi captures that fear and anxiety.
Rod Serling’s 1960 “Twilight Zone” episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is the story of how neighbors turn on each other when they suspect an alien invasion is taking place. It parallels the American crisis over desegregation and communist subversion.
As Serling concluded, “For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout of its own – for the children, and the children unborn. And the pity of it is that such things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.”
Why is this course relevant now?
New technology, along with endless predictions and prophecies about the future, bombard students.
It’s important to take a moment to step back. How is the way we talk about and use technology influenced by the way we’re trained to think about technology and the future? And how much do past visions of the future dictate the choices of the present?
What’s a critical lesson from the course?
Students often think technology has rules and it will follow those rules. But technology doesn’t work like that.
That’s both terrifying and uplifting, because it means that we can still create and imagine our future as we see fit.
What materials does the course feature?
I anchor the course with a series of novels; the list changes, but it always includes “The Time Machine” and Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1971 novel “The Lathe of Heaven.”
Beyond that, I try to pepper in a mix of pulp stories, TV shows, radio dramas, comic books and films. I assign the 1970s avant-garde sci-fi stories of Brian Aldiss and Joanna Russ, and underground literature from the 1980s, such as the graphic novel “Ed the Happy Clown.”
I shape the course like a traditional “great books” course – those that feature the works of intellectual and literary giants – by assigning a different work every week. I just have a different idea about what makes a great book.
We also spend a delightful week examining the economic and cultural history of “so-bad-its-good” B movies and late-night features, where I have them watch an episode of the Canadian sci-fi show “The Starlost,” considered one of the worst shows in television history. Sometimes you have to learn what not to do.
What will the course prepare students to do?
They learn to read and think. They learn that all stories have ideas and philosophies, whether simple or complex, wise or foolish.
I hope they learn to watch for nonsense in public debates about technology and the future – like how some people assume computer modeling for human language is the same thing as language – and keep an eye out for ideologies masquerading as action films.
I hope they learn to love an author they’ve never read before – and learn to appreciate how much reading and stories make life worth living.
Adam Jortner, Goodwin Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion, Auburn University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
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Economy
Kroger Exec Admits to Inflating Essential Item Prices
Inflating Essential Pricing
In a tense federal courtroom in downtown Portland, the spotlight was on Kroger executives as they faced sharp scrutiny over allegations of inflating prices on essential staples such as eggs and milk. This courtroom drama unfolded against the backdrop of Kroger’s proposed national merger with supermarket behemoth Albertsons — a move Kroger claims is vital for their competitive edge in the retail market.
Outside, the drama resonated, with Kroger-owned Fred Meyer’s workers, represented by UFCW Local 555, actively striking across Portland. Their signs, a vivid display of protest against unfair labor practices, underscored a deepening divide between corporate profits and workers’ lived realities.
The union drew a connecting line, spotlighting Kroger’s courtroom admission as emblematic of a broader corporate disregard for both consumer and employee welfare. “Kroger’s exposed strategy of upping prices on basics like milk and eggs only intensifies our drive for equitable labor terms,” the statement from UFCW Local 555 forcefully articulated.
Central to the courtroom revelations was an internal company email, wielded by FTC lawyers, authored by Kroger’s senior director for pricing, Andy Groff. The email candidly noted that the retail price upticks on milk and eggs were “significantly higher than cost inflation,” laying bare a strategy to offload elevated costs onto consumers. This disclosure stirred a noticeable reaction among courtroom attendees, piercing the veil typically shrouding corporate decision-making.
Kroger countered, urging the email’s context be considered as isolated rather than reflecting their broader price strategy. “The email in question does not define our company’s enduring commitment to compress margins and competitively price our goods,” defended a Kroger spokesperson, emphasizing ongoing responses to erratic pricing landscapes since 2020 and maintaining that their pricing aligns competitively with industry leaders like Walmart.
Simultaneously, the ongoing strike at Fred Meyer accentuated community solidarity and frustration concerning soaring living costs, linking the in-court disputes to palpable systemic issues. “It’s as if there’s ‘big corporations’ on one end and ‘everyone else’ on the other,” voiced Justin Godoy, echoing a common sentiment among shoppers disillusioned by perceived corporate avarice overshadowing basic needs.
From the corporate side, Fred Meyer linked the strike’s timing to the pivotal merger, framing the union as pivotal in safeguarding the fate of unionized grocery stores across America. “The merger underscores our commitment to the future of unionized grocery stores,” the company declared, steering the conversation towards a favorable merger outcome.
With the strike poised to continue until the following Tuesday disrupting operations across 28 stores, and an impending decision on the Kroger-Albertsons merger, the issues of corporate stewardship, labor rights, and consumer advocacy hung in balance — unresolved yet deeply interwoven. Community backing for the strikers was palpable, and the reverberations from these intertwined disputes were set to resonate well beyond Portland, casting a long shadow over the national conversation around corporate integrity and economic justice.
Further reading, check out these links.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/kroger-egg-prices
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
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Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
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Lifestyle
Equip Your Student with a Leading Laptop
Top computing options for a new school year
(Family Features) Preparing your student for a new year of education takes on many forms. From trusting them with heightened responsibilities and finding the right gear for their new hobbies to equipping them with the top tech for a successful school year, the back-to-school season is a critical time.
Simplify your shopping list with trustworthy tech that helps students make the grade with these recommendations from the experts at Qualcomm. Laptop performance is reborn with the Snapdragon X Elite platform, a powerful, intelligent and efficient processor that’s built for AI. With cutting-edge responsiveness, students can navigate demanding multitasking workloads across productivity, creativity and immersive entertainment – while getting up to multiple days of battery life on a single charge.
Find more education solutions at qualcomm.com/snapdragon.
Harness the Capabilities of AI
Level up your productivity and get creative with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, powered by Snapdragon X Elite. With incredible on-device AI performance and speedy Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, the possibilities are endless so you can create on the fly, anywhere you go. It’s not just smart – it’s your creative sidekick that knows what you need before you do. Built for AI, it streamlines your creative tasks with leading on-device intelligence capabilities.
Power Your Productivity
Built to work on the go thanks to its powerful performance and groundbreaking on-device AI travel assistant, the HP OmniBook X AI PC can help you unlock unparalleled productivity. Powered by Snapdragon X Elite and its intelligent, efficient processing capabilities, it features up to 26 hours of battery life to tackle notetaking, homework and beyond. Fuel your creative potential with super-charged performance that’s equipped with Wi-Fi 7 for seamlessly quick connectivity and a collection of AI tools and solutions to keep you running at your best.
Discover an All-New PC Experience
In the classroom and beyond, you can unleash power-packed performance and advanced AI with the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge. Powered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor and built for Galaxy AI, the thin and lightweight laptop, which is available with a 14- or 16-inch screen, offers 16 gigabytes of RAM to transform how you create, communicate and play by providing powerful computing, AI performance and power efficiency.
Navigate Complex Workloads with Ease
With cutting-edge responsiveness and unmatched speed for navigating the multitasking required in today’s digital-first age, the Dell XPS 13 – featuring powerful, on-device Copilot+ AI – lets students effortlessly tackle complex workloads. Powered by Snapdragon X Elite and featuring premium audio and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, the strong, lightweight laptop is crafted with machined aluminum for an elegant, minimalistic design.
Combine Outstanding Performance with Ultimate Flexibility
Effortlessly shift from tablet to sketchbook to multiple monitors – whatever the school day requires – with the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 and its unique detachable kickstand design. A laptop reimagined, this flexible, powerful 2-in-1 provides AI-accelerated power, multi-day battery life and lightning-fast speed via the Snapdragon X Elite processor to keep up with students all day long, no matter where their studies take them.
SOURCE:
Qualcomm
Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
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