# Who should pay for employees continuing education?



## rtztgue (Jul 9, 2010)

I just want to get a feel for how companies handle the continuing education of their employees. Do you make it 100% the responsibility of the employee or do you pay for it in some part? 

I have done a little of both in the past and currently I offer to pay the employees wages for the day they have to take off, but they have to pay for the classes. 

Is that too generous? Not generous enough? or a decent middle ground?


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

I base it on position in the company, how long with the company, and the value to me if that particular employee has the training being sought.


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## Greg from K/W (Jan 28, 2010)

Training is only going to make him worth more to you. SO yes pay for it. If he gets a passing grade and excels at it pay for his hours too. Its only fair. If your asking him to do it then why should you not pay for it?


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## rtztgue (Jul 9, 2010)

I can see your point if the tech was learning something new that would allow us, as a company, to utilize the skill and make more money. Or money from jobs we could not do before. 
But the continuing education I meant, and did not make clear, is the required education they need in order to keep their journeymen license. Sure they are more valuable to me if they have a license because if they do not I have to let them go, but then again, so would anyone else. So I see it falling into an area that I am paying them this wage because they are a journeyman so isn't it their responsibility to keep their license current. But, like I said. I have paid for half the costs for the last few guys.


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## JBM (Mar 31, 2011)

Sounds like 1/2 would be pretty fair.


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## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

Continuing education is a requirement to keep my license in this State......so that's my problem because education is portable and goes with me my whole life.

In my opinion if a company pays for it that would be a benefit and can be considered part of the total compensation package just like Dental insurance. 

If a company does this I would say that's pretty cool......and pretty rare as well.

Mike


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## JBM (Mar 31, 2011)

If you are grooming someone you would like to keep and put in charge someday its worth the investment. Have him sign a no compete contract haha.,


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

I offered 100% tuition reimbursement IF 1) there ws prior approval. 2) what they were studying pertained to their job function. 3) They got at least a B or higher in the class. 

Nobody ever took me up on the offer. 

I've offered monetary reards for employees to take open book manufacturer certifications, not everyone takes me up on it. But by doing this you can tell who gives a chit and who doesn't. 


I can not wait for IL to start requiring continuing education credits for the roofing contractor license. So many morons who shouldn't be licensed int he first place will lose their license. Some many people who are using deceased qualifying parties will lose their license or be forced to take the qualifying party exam themselves. 

As for continuing education credits, I look at my wife who is a nurse and needs continuing education to maintain her RN license. Sometimes the hospital where she works will have seminars, but not often. Usually it is on the expense of the employee to maintaint their CEU's. Heck there are online seminars for free whoch offer AIA CEU's, trade shows with seminars offering free CEU's, etc... there is no real reason to "pay" for credits.


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## tedanderson (May 19, 2010)

IMO it would depend on whether this was a W-2 or a 1099 employee. Also I would consider his current pay grade. If I can only pay him $8 an hour, paying his tuition is the least that I could do provided that he was a good employee. BUT if I was paying the guy a commission on his completed tasks and he was pretty much in control of how much he got paid in a day.. and he makes good money, then he would have to pay for it himself. 

There's nothing wrong with working for $8 an hour but I figure that if you want to make more money and share in the rewards, you also have to share in the responsibility of your destiny.


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## Warren (Feb 19, 2005)

tedanderson said:


> IMO it would depend on whether this was a W-2 or a 1099 employee. Also I would consider his current pay grade. If I can only pay him $8 an hour, paying his tuition is the least that I could do provided that he was a good employee. BUT if I was paying the guy a commission on his completed tasks and he was pretty much in control of how much he got paid in a day.. and he makes good money, then he would have to pay for it himself.
> 
> There's nothing wrong with working for $8 an hour but I figure that if you want to make more money and share in the rewards, you also have to share in the responsibility of your destiny.


Here we go again with the "1099 employee"

There is no such thing! I have a feeling if you are giving workers a 1099 to work by the hour, they can forget about asking for tuition reimbursement.


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## CJA (Jan 26, 2011)

I haven’t read all this but I’ll throw in my 2 cents. 
Most companies, if they offer continuing education, will pay only for passing grades. Meaning if the guy fails it comes out of his pocket. It is a legal liability to offer special employment benefits to one employee and not the rest. It’s called discrimination. That whole, what makes him worth it and not me crap. BS? Yes. Will it stand up in court? Yes. 
Now, that being said. When I was a safety director for a company, I had it written into my employment agreement that the company would pay for any and all continuing education courses I took throughout my employment.


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 17, 2008)

like others have said it depends on the guy. i personally didnt get a whole lot, when i registered as an apprentice the company payed my registration fee then the rest was out of my pocket, though if i was strapped for cash even with EI they would help me out

i went to school with some union boys who not only were getting their tuition payed for by the union but some of them also recieved their wage for each hour of class.....

similarly you should see it as a marketing tool, when you pitch your company to someone you can tell them you have licensed workers on your crew which will make the client more enthusiastic about hiring you instead of joe schmoe off the street who learned from watching tv


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## Rob PA (Aug 30, 2010)

I would be a big fan if PA required classes before getting your hic number. It would definately weed out people real quick.


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## PA woodbutcher (Mar 29, 2007)

Rob PA said:


> I would be a big fan if PA required classes before getting your hic number. It would definately weed out people real quick.


I would also be a fan if they enforced the registration to begin with.


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## PA woodbutcher (Mar 29, 2007)

CJA said:


> I haven’t read all this but I’ll throw in my 2 cents.
> Most companies, if they offer continuing education, will pay only for passing grades. Meaning if the guy fails it comes out of his pocket. It is a legal liability to offer special employment benefits to one employee and not the rest. It’s called discrimination. That whole, what makes him worth it and not me crap. BS? Yes. Will it stand up in court? Yes.
> Now, that being said. When I was a safety director for a company, I had it written into my employment agreement that the company would pay for any and all continuing education courses I took throughout my employment.


Discrimination against what or who? I believe discrimination is against race, religion, etc. 

Unless your showing a particular bias against one of them, it's none of the government's business.

Back to the OP, if it's in YOUR best interest, paying them the days wages is a good idea. Depending on the cost of the class as to rather it would be worth it to the employee


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## rtztgue (Jul 9, 2010)

Thanks for all input. Looks like I am about in line with what I do. These guys have to take the classes and have it submitted to the state or they cannot renew their individual electrical license. Even I have to do it. So I think I will keep it where it is. I pay for the wages and they pay for class. Or vice versatile but not both. Kinda a middle ground.


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## concretemasonry (Dec 1, 2006)

Every situation is different.

After graduating from college as an engineer, I moved to California to take a new job (facilities engineering/design). When I got there, I found out I was required to take graduate night school classes (3 nights per week) at USC, which was 35 miles away. The company paid the tuition., but not the time, since I was salaried. - It was not a bad deal!!!

If you took classes, you got and automatic 15% salary increase in pay over and above any other merit increases. We did not get paid mileage, but we car pooled and then could each take the mileage cost for a tax deduction (gray area). The reason was that the company could show increased education for employees for proposed to work on the projects, which turned out to be the best ones (if we got the project). - My instructor in graduate school was a chief engineer for a company that my country hired as a subcontractor and we worked on the same steel and concrete projects during the day before going to school at night. That made my work better and more interesting (especially after crawling around on rocket test stands and engines and making additions to the facilities to handle the new products tested).

No matter what you do as far as education, it comes back in many ways and can only improve any employee.


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