This City Is the First to Help Pay Off All Employees’ Student Loans
Memphis will become the first municipality to offer its employees financial assistance paying down their student loans, city leaders announced Thursday.
The 20th largest city in the country, Memphis will contribute $50 a month to the student loan account of any employee who’s worked for the city for at least a year. In doing so, Memphis joins a small but growing list of employers to introduce student debt repayment as a workplace benefit.
While only about 4% of companies offered some form of student loan assistance in 2016, that could increase five-fold to 20% by 2018, according to a survey of 320 companies by Willis Towers Watson.
Yet benefits run the spectrum, from debt counseling to a payroll deduction for payments. Some employers have even launched a plan that calculates a retirement match based on the amount an employee is paying in student loans.
Memphis is looking to address recruitment and retention challenges, especially within its public safety departments, says Alex Smith, the city’s human resources chief. City officials also pointed to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis that found per capita student debt levels in Memphis increased 5% between the first quarters of 2015 and 2016, compared to 3% growth nationally. (more…)