Working Mother Magazine Names Cricket to Second Annual Best Companies for Hourly

NEW YORK and SAN DIEGO, May 5, 2011 — Part of an esteemed group of honorees, Cricket Communications, Inc. has been named to Working Mother's second annual list of Best Companies for Hourly Workers. The only initiative of its kind, Best Companies for Hourly Workers celebrates businesses working steadfastly to provide family-friendly benefits that promote health/wellness, education, flexibility and work-life balance. Best Companies for Hourly Workers honorees must have a minimum of 50 percent hourly workers in order to submit their data for this distinction.

"For the second year, Working Mother's Best Companies for Hourly Workers honors corporations who develop talent and support a historically marginalized portion of the U.S. workforce," said Carol Evans, President, Working Mother Media. "Promoting employees from hourly workers to management to executive is a hallmark of these winning companies. In an era of economic stress and budget cuts, these companies are proactively working to ensure the future productivity of U.S. businesses and to bolster the economy as a whole."

"Cricket Communications has been honored as one of Working Mother's Best Companies for Hourly Workers because it is encouraging hourly employees to understand how their health and productivity go hand-in-hand," said Jennifer Owens, Director of the Working Mother Research Institute. "By offering medical coverage to anyone working 30 hours per week, personal health assessment tools and subsidized gym facilities, Cricket invests in the longitudinal success of their hourly employees."
With nearly half the U.S. workforce-73 million Americans-punching in and out as hourly employees every day, companies like Cricket are finding a competitive edge when they support hourly workers. Cricket and 100 percent of this year's Best Companies for Hourly Workers winners offer benefits such as healthcare coverage, tuition reimbursement to workers pursuing degrees and paid job skills training during working hours.

"We are honored to be named one of Working Mother's Best Companies for Hourly Workers," said Len Stephens, senior vice president of human resources for Cricket. "Our mission is to offer customers the best value in wireless, period. Our hourly employees are the key to making this happen, so it makes good business sense for us to develop and sustain a work environment that supports inclusion, promotes productivity and ensures that each employee can realize success."
The winners are detailed in Working Mother's May issue, at www.workingmother.com/bestcompanies, and on iPad (search: working mother). Corporate Voices for Working Families serves as knowledge partner for the Working Mother Best Companies for Hourly Workers initiative.

Methodology

The 2011 Working Mother Best Companies for Hourly Workers application was created in partnership with Corporate Voices for Working Families, a Washington, DC–based nonprofit membership organization. It includes some 450 questions on workforce; company culture; benefits; training, development and advancement programs; flexibility policies; paid time off and more. It surveys the availability and usage of programs, as well as the accountability of managers who oversee them. All applicants receive feedback showing how they compare to other applicants; however, the names of applicants that do not make the list are kept confidential.

About Working Mother Media

Working Mother magazine reaches 2.2 million readers and is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers; WorkingMother.com (www.workingmother.com) brings to the Web home and career information, advice and a broad range of solutions daily. 2010 marks 25 years of Working Mother's signature research initiative, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, the most important benchmark for work-life practices in corporate America. Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corp. (www.bonnier.com), includes the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE, www.nafe.com), Diversity Best Practices (www.diversitybestpractices.com), and the Working Mother Research Institute. Working Mother Media's mission is to serve as a champion of culture change.

About Cricket

Cricket is the pioneer of simple and affordable unlimited wireless plans with no long-term commitments or credit checks required serving more than 5.8 million customers in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Cricket offers wireless voice and broadband Internet services over the latest technology, high-quality, all-digital 3G CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO wireless network. Cricket's nationwide wireless voice service plans include unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance, as well as a variety of calling features and feature-rich mobile applications such as popular games, ringtones and wallpapers. For more information on Cricket, visit www.mycricket.com. Cricket is offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com.

SOURCE Cricket Communications, Inc.