In a tight job market, companies like Fidelity, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Chegg are all getting onboard to offer the latest in employee benefits designed to attract and retain younger employees, according to The Washington Post.
The benefit? Student loan repayment.
It's a benefit many millennials — who now make up the largest segment of the working population, according to the report — can really get onboard with, especially healthcare workers. Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges indicated nearly 80 percent of 2014 medical school students were saddled with $100,000 or more in debt at graduation.
While the student loan repayment trend is still fairly new, it is growing, the Society for Human Resources Management's director of compensation and benefits, Bruce Elliott, told The Washington Post. He said he can tell the trend is here to stay based on the number of startups popping up as third-party administrators for the benefit, according to the report.
For millennials, loan repayment can be much more attractive than a 401(k) because they are more focused on alleviating debt than retirement. According to the report, some companies have even engineered the benefit so that they make student loan payments on behalf of an employee when the employee contributes to their 401(k).
For employers, offering benefits like loan repayment is more attractive than raising salaries because they bump up total compensation but are more flexible if revenue goes down, according to the report.
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