Google employees are used to wasting perks. In pre-pandemic times, employees in Google offices can enjoy free meals and on-site gyms. On Thursday, the search giant announced that it will offer another work benefit: a student loan repayment program.
The company announced it will pay up to $ 2,500 per year in student loan payments for individual employees. The program begins in January for the company's full-time employees in the United States. The benefit does not apply to Google's army of reportedly more than 130,000 vendors, temps and contractors who employ more than 120,000 full-time employees at the company.
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Google said the program will expand to full-time workers around the world as the company collects information about its employees' debts in other countries. "This is one such crisis given the size of US student debt," John Casey, Google's director of global benefits, said in an interview. "We wanted to start there."
Americans have more than $ 1.5 trillion in student debt, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Among the youngest graduates in the US, the average per person is more than $ 30,000, according to the US News and World Report.
Google's guidelines apply when companies begin using student debt repayment plans to attract new talent and keep current employees happy. Companies like Hulu and Estée Lauder have student loan repayment discounts. Other employers, including Abbott Laboratories and Raytheon, match student loan payments with 401 (k) contributions.
The new perk could also be a way for Google to lure employees away from ordinary employees after some turbulent years dealing with cultural clashes. Google has exposed employee riots over the search giant's work in China, military contracts, and handling allegations of sexual misconduct against executives.
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