Page 25 - AT

BUSINESS Friday 15 November 2019
A25

These employers chip in on your student loans

By RYAN LANE launched this year, has 50
Associated Press participants overall.
Trilogy Health Services, a FISERV
Louisville, Kentucky-based Fiserv, a financial services
operator of senior living company headquartered
facilities, has paid $100 a in Brookfield, Wisconsin, is
month toward each eligi- leveraging its existing re-
ble worker’s student loans ward program to tackle
over the past four years. Its student debt.
total outlay: roughly $3 mil- Employees earn points for
lion.That money has made great customer service,
a big difference for Trilogy’s productivity and other pos-
nurses, therapists and staff, itive actions, says Anthony
says Todd Schmiedeler , Marino, executive vice
the company’s senior vice president and head of hu-
president of foundation man resources at Fiserv.
and workforce develop- All employees can ex-
ment. change points for items
“The number of hugs I get with a cash value, like gift
around student loan re- cards. Some can now put
payment is unbelievable,” that money toward student
Schmiedeler says. loans.
It’s no surprise workers ap- Fiserv is piloting this feature
preciate the help: With In this March 14, 2019, file photo people walk on the Stanford University campus in Santa Clara, with 10,000 of its 44,000 em-
outstanding student loans Calif. ployees. One-third have
reaching $1.5 trillion, it pays Associated Press used points for their loans
to work for an employer to date, says Marino.
that offers repayment as- In Clinton County, Iowa, eli- they relocated for the job vestment as possible,” says MONTEFIORE ST. LUKE’S
sistance. gible teachers can receive on or after Aug. 1, 2019. Eric Van Lancker, Clinton CORNWALL
Here’s how different com- $30 per month toward their Those amounts may sound County auditor and com- Montefiore St. Luke’s Corn-
panies help employees loans. That increases to $60 small, but the program uses missioner of elections. wall, a nonprofit hospital
deal with student debt. if they live in the city of Clin- taxpayer dollars. “We had One person has hit the $90 with campuses in New-
CLINTON COMMUNITY ton or an eligible neighbor- to make the most of what trifecta, says Van Lancker. burgh and Cornwall, New
SCHOOL DISTRICT ing city, and up to $90 if we could do with as little in- But the program, which York, lets eligible employ-
ees swap unused paid time
Japan’s economy slows, logging 0.2% off for a lump-sum loan
payment. “This was the
annual expansion in 3Q only (benefit) I’ve ever an-
nounced where there was
cheering, applause and
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s drag growth lower in the people thanking us,” says
economy grew at a mod- last quarter of this year. Dan Bengyak , vice presi-
est annual pace of 0.2% in Past tax hikes have been dent of administrative ser-
July-September, supported followed by recessions, but vices.
by consumer purchases economists say the modest Employees can exchange
ahead of a tax hike, the bump in spending ahead 30 to 75 hours of paid time
government said Thursday. of this latest increase sug- off annually, with payment
It was the fourth straight gests that spending and based on hourly salary. q
quarter of expansion for growth may not fall by as
the world’s third largest much this time around, said
economy, but well below Stefan Angrick of Oxford
analysts’ forecasts. Economics.
Exports were a drag on However, he said, “we cau-
growth. Inventories also tion against overly optimis-
declined. But government tic expectations for house- In this Sept. 30, 2019, file photo, a signboard says "Consumption
spending helped support hold spending after the tax hike, 8 percent to 10 percent", at a mass home electronics
demand, expanding by tax hike as wages remain retailer in Tokyo. Associated Press
2.4%. weak. The external outlook
Trade tensions between also remains vulnerable.”
China and the U.S. and In 2020, the economy is ex-
between Japan and South pected to get a small lift
Korea have weighed on from the Tokyo Olympics
export demand that al- and Paralympics, noted
ready was weakened by Naoya Oshikubo of Sumito-
slowing global growth. mo Mitsui Trust Asset Man-
The quarterly rate of growth agement.
was 0.1%, down from a re- He said corporate invest-
vised 0.4% in April-June. ments would likely also
An increase in the national rise thanks to the need for
sales tax to 10% from 8% equipment to help make
as of Oct. 1 is expected to up for shortages of labor.q