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Only 4% of businesses offer student loan assistance.
- National student debt is at an all-time high of nearly $1.6 billion.
- While many companies provide student-loan assistance, some businesses have found more creative ways of keeping their employees out of debt.
- Some of these policies include trading vacation days for student-loan relief and offering special signing bonuses.
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With student debt higher than ever in America, companies are finding unique ways to help their employees out of the student-loan hole.
As of June 2019, the national student debt is at an all-time high of nearly $1.6 billion, second only to national mortgage debt.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), around 4% of US businesses offer student loan assistance as a company benefit. That amounts to dozens of majors companies, including IBM, Staples, Peloton, Penguin Random House, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
But some companies are finding more interesting ways of helping employees with their debt: They're letting employees trade vacation days for student loan benefits, while others offer signing bonuses, company stock, or 401(k) contributions.
Here are six companies that are taking a unique approach to alleviating their workers' student debt.