Giving Compass' Take:

· Many of today's jobs require a college degree, but this usually results in piles of student loan debt. Triple Pundit reports that companies like Aetna are beginning to offer student loan repayment assistance which is attracting new employees and helping ease stress.

· How do these programs help employees? Does this increase work productivity and provide incentive to achieve more?

· Read how canceling student loan debt could save the economy.

To get a good job and earn a good salary: stay in school, go to college, and get a degree. So goes the conventional wisdom, and the research bears this out. Countless studies have shown that individuals with college degrees will earn more money over the course of their careers than those without a degree.

But the numbers also show that for many, the degree comes with a mountain of student loan debt that will take a good portion of their careers to pay off.

From the Class of 2017, some 70 percent graduated with student loan debt, and the average debt per graduate was $37,000. In total, some 44 million Americans are carrying nearly $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, which is more than all outstanding credit card debt and second only to mortgage debt.

While this mountain of debt seems insurmountable, a growing number of companies are starting to help by offering student loan repayment assistance to their employees.

These programs typically work like 401(k) retirement plans where the employer will match the employee’s payment toward the loan up to a certain limit. One of the pioneers in this area has been Aetna, which began offering this benefit at the start of 2017.

Read the full article about student loan debt by Jim Witkin at Triple Pundit.