Student loan borrowers are facing a brutal new era, as the Trump administration begins to garnish the wages of people in default, and millions who were part of a Biden-era repayment program are hit with interest payments once more. The slow-motion crisis is only getting worse, but there are ways for employers to step in and help workers who are feeling the pinch.
There are several benefits that companies can offer employees struggling under unwieldy debt burdens, including matching student loan contributions to retirement plans, PTO exchanges, financial planning counseling, and education assistance programs.
But half the battle for business leaders is convincing their company’s top brass that they should even offer these benefits in the first place. Only 9% of organizations offered student loan benefits in 2024, according to SHRM’s employee benefits survey. While that’s an increase from 7% in 2022, the vast majority of businesses still don’t offer any kind of assistance to employees.
Fortune spoke with several student loan benefit experts about how to make the case for offering the perks that are still rare, but increasingly relevant.
“It’s been an evolution and the recognition that student loans are here to stay, and, quite frankly, that the student loan debt crisis is real,” says says Stacey MacPhetres, senior director of education finance for EdAssist by Bright Horizons, which offers tuition assistance and student loan repayment benefit plans. “Employers are starting to recognize that it is a necessary benefit, and no longer a nice to have.”
