- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Higher Education
Nearly 5,800 government employees of the Cherokee Nation could either be headed back to school or receiving compensation for recently completing a degree under a new tribal workforce development program.
The program aims to award between $2,000 and $5,000 to tribal employees who have completed college degrees over the past five years or in the future, according to the tribe. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner signed the program into law on June 5.
The initiative incentivizes existing employees to continue their education and widen their skillsets. Employees must have at least a year on the job, meet performance standards, and stick around for a set time after taking the bonus. The program sits on top of existing tuition-assistance benefits.
Hoskin and Warner worked with the tribe's Finance and Human Resources departments to make the awards retroactive to October 1, 2019, the tribe's first fiscal year under the Hoskin-Warner administration.
Hoskin said the tribe should encourage employees to pursue higher education, from bachelor's and master's degrees to doctorates. He said in an email to Tribal Business News that rewarding educational achievement benefits both the Cherokee Nation and its workers.
“Being an employer of choice means we do not stand still,” Hoskin said.
Other Cherokee entities — including Cherokee Nation Businesses — expect to roll out similar policies later.
Warner said the program reflects community values and helps develop the workforce. He said the tribe wants to provide opportunities for all employees to excel.
“For someone who might have been considering whether to invest their time and effort into getting some new career-related education, we hope this will help ease the financial burden associated with choosing that path,” Warner said.
The degree bonus is the latest in a string of worker-focused moves under Hoskins’ and Warners’ leadership, the tribe wrote in a press release. In 2021, Hoskin ordered a wage study that led to a $15 minimum wage for tribal government jobs — nearly twice Oklahoma’s state minimum wage — and $10.6 million in salary bumps.
Cherokee Nation also gives workers two paid hours of mental-wellness leave each month, paid family leave for births and adoptions, and flexible spending accounts seeded with $2,000 per child per family.
