As companies continue to find ways to attract and retain the best talent, many firms are changing their benefits package to become more favorable to employees.
While several corporations offer tuition assistance to workers who wish to further their education, Pricewaterhouse Coopers is taking matters a step further by helping employees pay off their current student loan debt.
Starting
this July, the global consulting and accounting firm will offer its employees up to $1,200 a year, for up to six years, toward their student loans. All of PwC associates and senior associates, which account for about 45% of the firm’s 46,000 employees, will be eligible to benefit from the student loan assistance. Currently, the average college student graduates with about $35,000 worth of student loan debt, with PwC’s newest perk being designed to attract more millennial talent.[RELATED: Tech Companies Dominate In Best Pay And Benefits]
“We have reached a tipping point,” The Washington Post reports PwC’s Global Talent Director Michael Fenlon saying. “Student loan debt impacts the ability to save for retirement, so it has lots of secondary impact as well. We saw this as a way to provide leadership on a major societal issue, as well as something that’s really important to our people.”
Unlike some firms that require employees to meet certain qualifications before taking full advantage of their company’s benefits package, PwC’s new student loan repayment plan will not require employees to stay at the firm for a specific amount of years, nor will they have to pay back the benefit if they decide to leave the company.
With only about 3% of companies offering assistance with student loan repayment, according to a survey released by the Society for Human Resources Management, PwC has put themselves in a leading spot to recruit young talent.