美国国家公共电台 NPR A New Benefit: Some Companies Help Workers Pay Down Student Loans（在线收听）

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The size of the average student loan has nearly doubled over the past decade or so. Collectively, Americans carry more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, and some employers are seeing that as an opportunity. They're offering to help repay loans on workers' behalf as a way to attract and keep their talent. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Kelly O'Brien graduated from college six years ago with a political science degree and $28,000 in student loans.

KELLY O'BRIEN: It was stressful because coming out and having to have a payment of about $217 a month - it just seems like a lot of money to pay back when you don't really know where you're going to be working, how much you're going to be making.

NOGUCHI: O'Brien, now 27, wanted to save for a home or a wedding, but loan payments were her biggest roadblock.

O'BRIEN: I wanted to be debt-free before I got married and ideally come to the table with some savings.

NOGUCHI: Then a year and a half ago, O'Brien joined Fidelity Investments in Irvine, Calif., to work in client relations. She was told that after six months, she'd be eligible to have the company contribute to her loan payments.

O'BRIEN: So I quickly marked my calendar. I called my parents that night and told them how excited I was because I had no idea an employer would help you pay off your student loans.

NOGUCHI: Such benefits are relatively new and unusual. Only 4 percent of employers surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management offer it, but you can see why it's increasingly popular, especially as school loans become a bigger shackle. Data suggests student debt is delaying or preventing people in their 20s and 30s from buying homes. At the same time, unemployment is low and skilled workers hard to find. Employers who pay down student loans are more attractive, especially to younger workers. Kim Wylam is managing partner at Baker Tilly's human resource consulting group.

KIM WYLAM: Millennial turnover is different than any other generation before. And if I'm able to recruit somebody based off this benefit and then retain them for 12 or 24 months longer, then I'm getting a reward out of that.

NOGUCHI: There are possible downsides. Often, if an employee leaves before a certain amount of time, they must repay the money. But Wylam says that can backfire.

WYLAM: Sometimes, what we see is that an employee becomes disgruntled, and then they're working there simply because they don't want to have to repay.

NOGUCHI: But many say the upside is big. At Fidelity, for example, more than a quarter of its workers signed up for the program, which is only three years old. It pays up to $10,000 over five years. Asha Srikantiah, a vice president of Fidelity, says those who participate stay longer at the company.

ASHA SRIKANTIAH: For us, really focusing on retaining those people, especially after we've invested in training them, is a really important thing.

NOGUCHI: The program's success led Fidelity to now sell it as a service other employers can offer. Chatrane Birbal is director of congressional affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management. She says loan repayment would be more affordable to nonprofits and small businesses if Congress makes it tax-free for employers and workers.

CHATRANE BIRBAL: More employers might be able to offer student loan repayment as a benefit to their employees.

NOGUCHI: Even without the tax benefits, some employers say it's worthwhile. Madeline McIntosh is CEO of Penguin Random House, which started offering loan repayment two years ago. She says about 10 percent of the publishing company's 5,000 employees participate - including, she says, older people who return to school or took out loans for kids.

MADELINE MCINTOSH: I feel like it has really kind of outsized emotional or psychological benefits for employees. I feel like if they were ranking it, this would be up there at the top, and I don't think it's the most expensive.

NOGUCHI: It's cost the company about a million dollars to date - far less, she says, than what it spends on health insurance. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.