You've landed a few job offers—and you're considering one with free gourmet meals, shuttles to and from work, on-site fitness and laundry facilities, and yes, on-site massages. With heated competition for talent, companies are dangling innovative perks to lure and keep Millennials, workers in their 20s and 30s, estimated at close to 50% of the labor force in the next few years.

While many of these perks contribute to employee savings, there's a new one that has particular appeal to recent college graduates, 71% of whom are saddled with student loan debt of about $35,000 on average. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the largest of the big four accounting firms, recently launched a new employee perk that will pay $100 a month or $1,200 a year to reduce student-loan principal for its associates and senior associates for up to six years. Since paying off the loan also reduces interest payments, the company estimates the perk's value is closer to $10,000, in addition to shortening the loan payoff period by up to three years.

As the first in the industry to offer this innovative perk, PwC has made it available to all of its employees in the United States.

According to the company's global talent director, PwC's help with student loan repayment is a way to provide leadership on a major societal issue as well as an effective business strategy to retain top employees.

Questions for Critical Thinking

1. Some argue that PwC's employee perk is really not much of an incentive for employees who already earn generous salaries. Do you agree? Why or why not?

2. In an effort to reduce student debt more quickly, many recent grads end up jumping from company to company to make more money. Do you think this new perk will help with employee recruitment and retention? Explain how you would evaluate a perk like this as part of a job offer.