Policymakers, activist groups, the media and others have described student debt as an albatross squeezing parents, keeping young people from moving into adulthood, and saddling retirees with untenable payments in their golden years.
The latest party to use his soapbox to address the issue? A brothel owner.
“What I see is America ripping off college kids,” said Dennis Hof, the owner of the Carson City, Nev.-based Moonlite Bunny Ranch, said in an interview. “It’s a huge rip off. The dream of get your education, do what you have to do, pay all this money and get out and get a six figure job, that’s over, that’s not happening.”
In response, Hof, who also starred in the HBO series “Cathouse,” said he’s decided to help his employees pay off some of their student loans. Ever since the Great Recession, Hof said he’s seen woman after woman walk through his doors looking for a job that will help them make a dent in their student loans. He decided to give them a leg up. During the first 60 days that a woman works at the company, she can have whatever portion of her take-home pay she wants dedicated to her student loans matched by Hof. So for example, if a woman brings earns a total of $25,000 in take-home pay during those 60 days and decides to put $10,000 of it towards her student loans, the company will match that.
Though Hof’s offer has elements of a publicity stunt, he’s responding to a clear demand that other employers are recognizing, too. Consulting and tax firm PricewaterhouseCoopers recently announced it would put $1,200 a year towards its workers’ student loans for the first six years they work at the company.
In most cases, the companies are using the perk to recruit top young workers, and these workers are clamoring for the benefit. About 55% of prospective college students, current students and recent graduates would rather have their employer help them pay down their debt than offer a health-care plan, according to a recent survey from ionTuition.
At Moonlite Bunny Ranch, the tactic appears to be working; Hof said he’s seen about 16 applications come across his desk since he announced the student loan benefit a few days ago.
Given the sobering statistics on student debt, it’s no surprise workers are drawn to a company that will help them with their student loans. With one in four borrowers in default or struggling to pay off their loans, more are clamoring for ways to pay it off. One in nine student loan borrowers said they’d go so far as to eat a tarantula to get rid of their debt and some young women turn to websites that will match them with older, wealthier men to help make a dent in their student loans.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-latest-employer-offering-to-pay-off-student-loans-a-brothel-2015-10-09