While only federal student loans are part of the broader debt cancellation conversation, President Donald Trump's CARES Act passed in March 2020 gave employers anIn December, the Trump administration extended through 2025 a provision of the CARES Act that allows companies to pay off up to $5,250 of their employees' student debt annually on a tax-free basis, meaning that payments would be excluded from payroll and income taxes for both the employee and the employer.
Before the pandemic, about 8% of companies offered student debt repayment, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, and while it's unclear how many companies have used the pandemic-era incentive, some CEOs stress the importance of participating. "Corporations are the beneficiary of the education that students got," Dan Rosensweig, CEO of online education company Chegg,Chegg started a student debt repayment program in 2019, and since then, about $700,000 has been paid off for its employees, Axios reported.