Fidelity Investments helps workforce pay back student loans
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Fidelity Investments has become the latest to join a small group of employers who are paying off their employees' student loan debt.
The Boston-based financial services firm on Monday said that nearly 5,000 employees have signed up for its Step Ahead Student Loan assistance program, launched in January and first announced Monday.
Fidelity partnered with Santa Monica, California-based Tuition.io Inc. to provide employees who have been with the company for more than six months $2,000 per year toward their student loans. Eligible participants can receive up to $10,000, Fidelity said in a statement.
The benefit is paid monthly, and employees are not required to pay it back if they leave the company, Fidelity said.
Fidelity follows in the steps of a string of financial services firms offering student loan payback as a benefit. New York-based PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.C. announced a similar benefit in September, and Boston-based Natixis Global Asset Management S.A. announced its student loan payback program in December.
Fidelity said in the statement that about 25% of its employees have student loans.
“Our employees and their managers told us that student loan debt was forcing them to put off major life decisions like buying a home and having a child. As a financial services firm, this was really concerning to us and we felt that providing a benefit like student loan repayment assistance helps us to address a very real financial concern that is impacting our employees directly,” Jennifer Hanson, head of associate experience and benefits at Fidelity, said in the statement.
Fidelity also on Monday said it has increased paid time off for maternity leave to 16 weeks from six to eight weeks, and increased parental leave to six weeks from two weeks.
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