Behind many managerial women stands a trailing husband. He pulls up stakes and relocates when his partner gets a better role in a different locale.
John Van Lonkhuyzen has done this three times since 1995—the year after he and Nicola Morris got engaged. As his wife advanced in her career, the veteran lawyer moved to Washington, D.C., Westfield, N.J., and recently, Yarmouth, Maine. Their latest relocation was the first time Ms. Morris’s employer offered to help him job hunt.
More female executives are moving ahead in their careers through geographic moves. And, increasingly, their employers lend a hand so their husbands can find work.
On average, women accounted for a record 23% of moves by North American employers in 2016—up from 17% in 2009, according to surveys of employers by Atlas Van Lines Inc. About 62% of employers provided job-hunting aid for spouses or partners of transferred staffers in 2017, compared with 33% in 2007, Atlas data shows.
“Companies consider such help a critical aspect of getting more women into leadership,” says Lauren Herring, chief executive of Impact Group, a career and leadership development firm with job-hunting services for relocated spouses and partners.
Ms. Morris left an executive role with Verizon Communications Inc. in New Jersey to become a senior vice president of WEX Inc. in South Portland, Maine. While recruiting Ms. Morris, Chief Executive Melissa Smith offered to introduce Mr. Van Lonkhuyzen to law firms near the corporate-payments-services company.
Ms. Smith says she wanted to show she cared about supporting “both partners in their careers when they make a move.”
Mr. Van Lonkhuyzen, a former lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department, landed a partnership with Verrill Dana LLP, a Portland law firm, at the same time his wife joined WEX in 2014.
American Express Co. has helped mates of relocated staffers look for work since 2012. With women now nearly half of its transferees, many men accompanying them use these career services, says a spokeswoman.
AmEx’s global program, expanded in 2016, now includes career coaches, job leads, résumé writing, office space and advice about negotiating job offers or starting a business. Most participating spouses and domestic partners find positions, the company says.
But international relocation can create challenges for trailing husbands. The most common reason for a rejected foreign assignment is a partner’s unwillingness to move due to his or her career. That is especially true for potential female transferees, concludes a new study by Ernst & Young LLP and NetExpat Inc., a coaching and training firm.
Six years ago, AmEx gave middle manager Corrina Davison a chance to leave her native Australia for a New York executive role. “It was our dream to work overseas,” she remembers.
Her husband, Duncan Davison, an Australian student-teacher supervisor, says he hoped to launch a U.S. version of his Sydney University pilot project that helped elite teen swimmers handle competitive setbacks.
The executive trainer at an acculturation workshop for AmEx accompanying partners introduced Mr. Davison to a possible investor for his athlete project, though Mr. Davison dropped the idea after the United Nations International School hired him to teach physical education part-time. He soon advanced to director of athletics. He says he would move again for his wife’s career because he believes he has become more employable globally.
Other men fear relocating for their wives will disrupt their career trajectories. Consider Joshua Kim, whose wife, Julie, is an oncologist and associate professor at Dartmouth’s medical school in Hanover, N.H.
He faced the difficult decision of quitting a job he loved in 2006—he helped launch and run Quinnipiac University’s online education unit—so she could take the Dartmouth post. He had followed her twice before.
“Why do I have to be a trailing spouse a third time?” he recalls asking his wife.
Dr. Kim consulted for two years before joining Dartmouth’s learning center and becoming head of digital learning initiatives there in 2014. “That kind of patience for a career move is a challenge,” he says. “As a trailing husband, you have to be more creative and inventive.”
Ms. Morris and Mr. Van Lonkhuyzen struggled with the same issue after her Verizon promotion brought them to New Jersey from Washington in 2007. He fruitlessly sought jobs in corporate legal departments and government before getting a temporary Justice Department gig in Newark. Mr. Van Lonkhuyzen obtained a permanent New York DOJ spot in 2009.
That relocation “was hard for us,” Ms. Morris says. But WEX “was a great fit for what I was looking for,” she says, especially since both she and her husband grew up in Maine.
Write to Joann S. Lublin at [email protected]
Amazon Targets Medicaid Recipients as It Widens War for Low-Income Shoppers
Online retailer rolls out discounted Prime program to Medicaid recipients
Analysts estimate Amazon Prime membership has reached more than half of U.S. households with internet and largely saturated the wealthier segment. PHOTO: RICH PEDRONCELLI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By
Laura Stevens
March 7, 2018 9:00 a.m. ET
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN +0.45% is expanding its discounted Prime program, its latest salvo in a battle with Walmart Inc. WMT -1.38% for low-income shoppers.
The online retail giant said Wednesday that it will extend its $5.99 monthly Prime membership to the roughly 20% of the U.S. population that is signed up for Medicaid. Last year, the company introduced the discount—Prime membership ordinarily costs $12.99 a month or $99 a year—by offering it to people who obtain government assistance with cards typically used for the food-stamp program, formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Prime perks include unlimited two-day shipping and video and music streaming.
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Amazon’s pursuit of more low-income shoppers comes as analysts estimate Prime membership has reached more than half of all U.S. households with internet and largely saturated the wealthier segment.
Even as shopping increasingly shifts online, many low-income customers continue to frequent brick-and-mortar stores, where they can pay with cash or a SNAP card. Walmart has more than 4,600 stores in the U.S. and Dollar General Corp. —which targets households earning $40,000 or less—has more than 14,000, many in low-income, rural areas.
Walmart, the country’s largest retailer by revenue, is seeking to attract wealthier shoppers, ramping up efforts to better compete with Amazon online. It is wooing premium brands to walmart.com; late last year it announced plans to start selling products from department store Lord & Taylor online. And last week it replaced many of its private-label clothing brands with new, slightly more expensive and fashion-forward versions.
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Amazon’s discounted membership, which is limited to four years of eligibility, is increasing orders for items like baby food, toys and diapers, said Aaron Perrine, who leads the program. Customers are also using the company’s one- and two-hour shipping option, Prime Now.
“They come for shipping,” he said. “They stay for digital”—specifically Amazon’s video- and music-streaming options.
These customers also frequently purchase the company’s own devices, including its Fire TV streaming sticks, Echo Dot speakers and Fire tablets, he added.
Lower-income consumers have been the fastest-growing segment of online shoppers, analysts say, but still face potential impediments. They may lack internet access, banking resources like credit cards—SNAP cards can’t be used to pay online—and safe places to deliver a package.
But consumer habits are shifting rapidly. Most low-income shoppers now have a mobile phone, and companies including United Parcel Service Inc. and Amazon have been adding lockers and other pickup locations to allow for safe delivery. The retailer has also recently expanded the ability to reload account balances with cash at convenience stores and other locations.
—Sarah Nassauer contributed to this article.
Write to Laura Stevens at [email protected]