Employers have been taking steps to address\nstudent loan burden for a while now. Some companies provide voluntary repayment\nbenefits to assist students with debt payment; other strategies include making\ndirect employer-matching contributions toward the loan amount or working with\nlow-interest rate lenders who can offer competitive financing rates and bundling\npackages. Benefits such as these are especially attractive to younger workers,\nnot surprising given the fact that student debt now exceeds $1.5 trillion,\naccording to the Federal Reserve. When employees are on the hook for making\nthese monthly payments, they often have little income left to contribute to\n401(k) and other savings plans. That\u2019s persuaded companies like Unum and Abbott\nLaboratories to come up with some creative solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Employees at Unum receive 28 days of PTO beginning\nin their first year. They are allowed to carry over a maximum of five days (40\nhours) every year, and beginning in January 2020, will be able to convert their\nunused time into a student debt payment plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abbott Labs unveiled a new program geared\ntoward employees who contribute at least 2 percent of their pay to student\nloans through payroll deduction. The company will provide an automatic 401(k)\npayment equivalent to 5 percent of the employee\u2019s salary to these workers even\nif they aren\u2019t contributing to a 401(k) account themselves. The amount is\nequivalent to that offered through their employer matching program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The IRS is still ironing out the details of\nAbbott\u2019s plan but has initially approved it through a private letter ruling.\nThis paves the way for other companies to come up with similar creative\napproaches to tackling the student debt issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Younger employees aren\u2019t the only ones\nburdened with student debt. Older workers might have taken out loans to pay for\ntheir children\u2019s college educations or returned to school themselves to improve\ntheir future job prospects. Regardless, student debt remains a major problem\nfor many U.S. employees. When employers can help ease the burden, everybody\nbenefits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the price of a college education continuing to skyrocket, student debt is a major issue for many nowadays. Given record low unemployment rates and a very worker-friendly job market, many employers are looking for creative ways to set themselves apart from the competition in order to attract top talent. One innovative approach involves allowing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"schema":"","placeID":"","no_match":false,"name":"","company":"","review":"","address":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","lat":"","lng":"","phone1":"","phone2":"","fax":"","mon1":"","mon2":"","tue1":"","tue2":"","wed1":"","wed2":"","thu1":"","thu2":"","fri1":"","fri2":"","sat1":"","sat2":"","sun1":"","sun2":"","hours-note":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-resources"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n