Thursday's New York Times features a really interesting piece on Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) self-help programs for employees (registration required). The world's biggest retailer offers its workers opportunities to take aerobics classes together, and, in a move that might make Al Gore a Wal-Mart shopper, reimburses its employees for using public transportation to get to work (As though many Wal-Mart workers have a choice, given their earnings).

According to the Times:

In the last year, Wal-Mart has quietly introduced an ambitious program in the United States - in equal parts self-help class, corporate retreat and tent revival - that tries to turn its 1.3 million workers into a model for its 200 million customers on issues ranging from personal health to the environment.

The program, to be announced today, tests the assumption, if not conventional wisdom, that environmentalism and fitness are luxuries of the well-off, inaccessible to a vast number of the nation's working class because of hectic schedules, stretched budgets and bad habits.

So far, 50% of employees in the dozen states where it's been implemented have signed up for programs that involve quitting smoking, saving money on electricity, healthy eating, and other workshops. It would be easy to get really cynical about programs like this, but I actually am impressed. Very few companies offer programs like this for low-wage workers. But I have another idea: How about workshops on personal finance, where employees could learn about budgeting, saving, and how to manage their 401(k)s? Wal-Mart could buy copies of books like Suze Orman's Money Book for Young Fabulous and Broke for younger employees, and Start Late, Finish Rich for the older ones. If Wal-Mart could educate its workforce about their finances, I might even become a fan. Not even the public schools have been able to do that.