Dive Brief:

• PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has paid $25 million toward its employees' student loan debts through the pay-down program it created in 2016, the auditing company told HR Dive in a press email. According to Inside Higher Ed, PwC offers associates and senior associates $1,200 a year for up to six years to pay down their student loan.
• The firm said its black and Hispanic employees sign on to the pay-down program at higher rates than their white and Asian counterparts. Of the eligible participants, 62% are black, 52% are Hispanic, 47% are white and 22% are Asian.
• PwC cited data that shows black students borrow federal student loans at higher rates than white students, which is related to broader disparities in wealth.

Dive Insight:

Student loan debt in the U.S. totals near $1.4 trillion and accrues at a rate of $2,858 a second, Debt.org reports. The average student loan balance was $26,900 for public four-year graduates and $32,600 for private nonprofit four-year graduates, CNBC reported.

With this in mind, PwC's repayment of up to $7,200 total per worker over the six years could be a drop in the bucket for in-debt workers — especially for those with advanced degrees. 

Still, student debt pay-down benefits are catching on. According to a 2018 Clutch survey, about one-third of candidates have encountered employers offering student debt repayment benefits. 

The tremendous rise in the cost of higher education has not been lost on employers, who realize the impact financial stress of any kind can have on the health and productivity of the workforce. Workers have also shown a desire for the benefit, with nearly 80% in a 2018 CommonBond survey looking to employers to provide repayment benefits. 

As colleges take a range of approaches to lower their costs — from tuition resets and larger institutional grants to participation in free-college programs — employers are adding a new corporate benefit to retain workers by helping reduce their debt burden and encouraging them to upskill. 

Not all companies will be able to do so equally, however.

Large firms like PwC and Sotheby's have rolled out repayment programs, but offering these benefits could be difficult for small businesses trying to compete for talent. Those companies may be more inclined to offer lower-cost means of helping workers cope with student loan debt, such as referrals to financial well-being experts, behavioral health providers and employee assistance programs to cope with the stress and anxiety these debts can trigger.