Part
01
of one
Part
01
What employers offer financial services to their employees and what are these products? How are they competitive to financial products commercially available?
Hello! Thanks for your question about financial services offered by employers to their employees. The most useful sources I found to answer your questions are the International Federation of Employee Benefit Plans and individual company websites. The short version is some employers, generally those in the financial sector, offer banking services to their employees. It is increasingly common for employers to offer tuition reimbursement or to pay student loan debt. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
TABLE
Click here to see my table of employer benefit offerings stacked against comparable outside-market services. Read on for some explanation of the benefits I mention in the spreadsheet.
HISTORICAL TRENDS
During the recession, there was a trend of employers offering assistance to employees in purchasing or retaining their homes. They also provided education about home buying and individual finances. I could not find any evidence of this trend currently.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Companies in the financial sector frequently offer financial products to their employees at a discount. This includes fee-free banking products and discounts on home and auto loans. PNC and HSBC offer packages to employers so they can offer these benefits to their employees. Chase offers financial services directly to their employees.
Another trend is to offer financial service planning and education to employees. With heightened financial stress, this is an attractive benefit to employees. Two-thirds of employers offer some version of financial education to their employees.
These services look competitive to commercially available financial services since they offer a discount on the commercially available products offered by the same companies (for example, waiving the standard fee on a home loan or offering financial services without the standard fees).
TUITION REIMBURSEMENT & STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT
A new trend is for employers to offer student loan repayment assistance. Tuition reimbursement has been a common benefit for many years, with 83% of employers offering some form of it (even beyond the tax-free cap of $5,250), but student loan repayment has been less common.
With higher student loan debt, this is becoming a more attractive benefit to offer. Large companies like Disney, Procter & Gamble, and Boeing offer some assistance, and several smaller companies offer their employees unlimited assistance with loan and tuition payments.
WALMART
Since you mentioned Walmart's employee benefits, I looked up what they currently offer. I could not find any information on personal loans or applying paychecks to Walmart credit cards (and that information just may not be widely available), but they do have an extensive discount program at their stores and through their Associate Discount Center.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, the most common types of financial services that employers offer to their employees are discounted banking services, tuition reimbursement and financial planning and education. Mortgage assistance was available during the 2008 recession, but is not offered commonly anymore.
Thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!