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CVS to raise wages, eliminate education requirements for job candidates

Yahoo Finance’s Sibile Marcellus reports details behind CVS’s decision to boost pay and cut down on education requirements for job candidates.

Video transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: CVS Health posted second quarter results this morning that beat analysts' estimates on both the top and bottom line. The company even raised its forecast for the year, but the stock is lower this morning anyway after the drugstore chain said it will focus on making investments for future growth instead of doing things like increasing dividend payments or share buybacks.

CVS is also taking steps to attract new workers as retailers compete for talent. Yahoo Finance's Sibile Marcellus here now with some more details. So what are they doing, Sibile?

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SIBILE MARCELLUS: Alexis, they're raising wages and dropping educational requirements, that's how CBS is competing in this fierce battle we're seeing right now when it comes to restaurants and retailers all trying to hire low-wage workers and trying to boost wages to bring them in. Now one of the reasons that was cited oftentimes was that because of the enhanced federal unemployment benefits, that was a reason why people weren't coming off the sidelines and back into the labor force. But in some states that has been stopped, and we're still not seeing a spike in those jobs being filled up. We're still hearing tons of complaints about these employers wanting to attract more workers.

Now President Biden has said that if they do want to attract more workers, they just need to raise wages. That's the key. That's the secret. That's what CVS is doing. So what CVS has, is they're starting wages $11 an hour, but 2/3 of their employees are already making 15 bucks an hour, and they plan to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour for all employees by July of next year. So they're playing a little bit of catch-up there.

And also, when it comes to the educational requirement, so this is what CVS is dropping. When they're recruiting for workers in colleges on college campuses, they are dropping the GPA requirements. And then when it comes to the hourly workers, what they're dropping are the high school diploma requirement. So we're seeing CVS really pulling out all the stops.

The ambition of CBS-- of CVS, is to go beyond just being a pharmacy, but to actually be an urgent care center, so provide more medical services to customers. So for that, they need a much more robust labor force.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: We'll see if that's going to do the trick, if they're going to be able to entice those workers. All right, Sibile Marcellus, thanks so much.