Goodly replace lame office perks with student loan repayment

How do Goodly student loan repayment benefits work?

Offering student loan repayment benefits to workers

In 2011, Greg Poulin was a 22-year-old undergraduate at Dartmouth when his father unexpectedly died. According to documents reviewed, he had to take out $80,000 in student loans to complete his education, and he’s still working to pay off his debt 10 years later, which now stands at $57,345.86.

After graduating, Poulin became one of the first five employees at Rippling, a San Francisco-based startup which streamlines payroll and benefits administration for companies. After working there for a few years, Poulin decided he could use this expertise to tackle not just his own student debt but for everyone.

He founded his software startup Goodly in 2018 to enable employers to offer student loan repayment as an employee benefit. He told Insider the software could help the average employee pay off their student loans about 31% faster than otherwise.

Big companies like Staples, Aetna, and Estee Lauder are also offering this benefit, but Poulin sees a lot more room for growth.

How Does Goodly Work? Goodly is a unique technology platform that works for employers and employees in a simplistic but comprehensive way. Here’s how it operates for both companies and their workforce.
For Employers, When a company implements Goodly student loan repayment benefits, the platform allows the organization to make contributions on an after-tax basis toward their employees’ student loan debt.
This is all done through a secured technology tool, and employers have the option to pay as little as $25 or up to $200 per month toward student loan debt balances.

Employers can integrate Goodly with nearly all major payroll providers to make debt payments automatic.
Additionally, companies only pay a per-participant fee – not an annual or monthly flat fee simply for using the platform. This participant charge ranges from six to 12 dollars per month, depending on the features selected.
Employees on the other hand who work for an employer that implements Goodly can easily opt into the student loan repayment benefit.

The online platform facing employees is easy to navigate with a few simple clicks, and the tool connects quickly and easily with the student loans of each employee.

Once an employee signs up, employer contributions are then transmitted through payroll to the employee’s student loan. Employees can track their progress and total contributions at any time with the Goodly app or online.
In December, Poulin worked with Congress to pass the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which allows employers to make tax-free contributions of up to $5,250 a year to their employees’ student debt, without the payments being included in the employees’ taxable income. Poulin called it a “watershed moment” for student loan repayment.

Before the tax exemption was enacted, one in 10 employers were offering the benefit, but that figure is now expected to see a 300% increase in 2021, according to the Society of Human Resources Management, increasing to one in three employers now that the benefit is tax-free.

Poulin said it takes employers just 10 minutes to set up Goodly, after which Goodly implements employer contribution plans, enrolls employees, verifies student loans, and facilitates payments on behalf of the employer.
Goodly analyzed 2,000 employers offering student loan repayment benefits in the US and found that the benefit is now offered in companies in all 50 states, with California, New York, and Massachusetts top the list for states with the most employers offering the benefit.

Aside from employers, lawmakers are also working to help employees repay their student loans. Last week, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon introduced a bill to allow employers to make matching contributions to a 401(k) retirement plan while employees make student loan repayments.

“Right now, generations of Americans are struggling under the crushing burden of student debt,” Wyden said in a statement. “They are putting off buying a home, having children, and saving for retirement to pay down their student loans. As the cost of higher education continues to skyrocket, so does the debt. Americans need to be able to save for retirement, even while repaying their loans.”

“I think, in a lot of ways, what gets lost in all the noise of student loan forgiveness is, what are we going to do long-term that we can implement for solving the student debt crisis?” Poulin said. “Student-loan forgiveness might be a one-time fix, but even if we have some level of forgiveness this summer, what are we going to do with the cohort of folks entering the workforce with student debt down the road?”

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