This Company Will Pay Your Student Loans--Here's The Catch

&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image getty size-large wp-image-1127566929&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/1127566929/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;639&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; Photo Credit: Getty

Would you trade your vacation days in exchange for cash to help pay off your student loans?

This Fortune 500 company is betting that you might.

Here&s;s what you need to know.

&l;strong&g;Student Loan Debt Statistics&l;/strong&g;

Student loan debt in the U.S. continues to soar. Today, student loan debt is the second highest consumer debt category, second only to mortgages. The latest student loan debt statistics from Make Lemonade peg outstanding student loan debt at $1.5 trillion, with more than 44 million Americans owing money on their student loans.

According to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, student loan debt is now a &q;crisis.&q; According to &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/11/28/student-loan-debt-crisis/#6d27daea21e3&q;&g;remarks&l;/a&g; last November, student loan debt has tripled since 2007 and has risen by $500 billion since 2013.

One company has a unique idea to help employees pay off student loan debt.

&l;strong&g;The Proposal: Student Loan Repayment&l;/strong&g;

Unum, a $7.5 billion publicly-traded insurance company based in Tennessee, &l;a href=&q;https://www.unum.com/about/newsroom/2019/january/student-debt-relief-program&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;announced&l;/a&g; a new student loan debt relief program for its employees. &l;span&g;Starting next year, Unum&s;s U.S. employees with student loans can exchange their carry-over paid time off (&q;vacation days&q;) for a payment toward their student loans. This new student loan debt program will be managed by Fidelity Investments. The program is also available to parents who borrowed educational loans for their children such as &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/12/03/parent-plus-loans-repayment/#49866d9e39b5&q;&g;Parent PLUS Loans&l;/a&g;.&l;/span&g;

Here&s;s how the student loan debt relief program works:

&l;/p&g;&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;Each Unum employee receives 28 days of paid time off per year.&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;At the end of each year, employees can carry over up to five days, or 40 hours, of their unused vacation days.&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;Starting in January 2020, Unum employees with student loans can receive a payment for student loan debt equal to up to five days of vacation days.&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

So, an employee who transfers five vacation days would receive a student loan payment equal to five days of their salary. An hourly employee who transfers five vacation days would receive - assuming an 8-hour day - a student loan payment equal to 40 hours of their wages.

&l;strong&g;How To Manage Your Student Loan Debt&l;/strong&g;

What if you don&s;t work at Unum? What if you don&s;t want to give up your next beach vacation? Then what?

If you have student loan debt, here are some other proactive strategies that you can implement:

1. &l;a href=&q;https://www.makelemonade.co/ultimate-guide-to-pay-off-student-loans-faster/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;nofollow noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Pay off your student loans faster&l;/a&g;

2. Enroll in &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/01/30/how-to-never-get-rejected-for-student-loan-forgiveness/&q; target=&q;_self&q;&g;student loan forgiveness&l;/a&g;

3.&a;nbsp;&l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/02/04/student-loans-taxes/#cc6280c5d6f7&q; target=&q;_self&q;&g;Save money on taxes&l;/a&g;

4. &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/02/06/should-you-refinance-your-federal-student-loans/&q; target=&q;_self&q;&g;Refinance student loans&l;/a&g;

5. Use &l;a href=&q;https://www.makelemonade.co/calculators/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;nofollow noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;student loan calculators&l;/a&g;