If your federal student loan payment just came back to life after the July 1 SAVE plan shutdown, donât just grimace and set up autopay. Open your employerâs benefits portal and see whether theyâll match those payments into your 401(k). About one in twenty do. For people at those companies, this is real money nobodyâs telling them about.
The rule that unlocks it is SECURE 2.0 Section 110, on the books since January 2024. Congress wrote it for borrowers who couldnât afford both a student loan payment and a 401(k) contribution. If your employer opts in, they treat your monthly student loan payment as if youâd deferred that dollar into the 401(k), and they apply their normal employer match on top of it. Same match rate. Same vesting schedule.
Adoption has been slow. Per the Plan Sponsor Council of America, roughly 2% of 401(k) plans offered the feature at the end of 2024, with the share closer to 5% at firms with 5,000-plus employees. Alightâs benefits benchmarking put the number near 5% in 2025 with another 12% of employers saying âvery likelyâ to add it. Named early adopters read like a list of companies with a lot of debt-loaded early-career staff: Comcast (announced for 2025 across roughly 90,000 U.S. employees at up to 6% of pay), Kraft, Workday, News Corp, and Abbott, which piloted the concept with its Freedom 2 Save program back in 2018.
Hereâs the piece nobodyâs talking about. Millions of borrowers who paid $0 on SAVE are now on the Repayment Assistance Plan or an income-based plan, paying 1% to 10% of income. Thatâs a fresh monthly student loan bill on their ledger for the first time in years. If their employer is one of the 5%, every one of those payments could be dragging a 401(k) match along behind it.
What the money looks like
Take an employee earning $70,000 with a common employer match of 100% on the first 4% of pay. If theyâre too tight on cash to defer any salary because of a $300-a-month student loan bill, they normally miss the full $2,800 annual match. Under Section 110, that $300 loan payment counts as a deferral: the same 4% match applies, $2,800 lands in the 401(k), and take-home pay doesnât budge.
Over 30 years at a 7% return, $2,800 a year compounds to roughly $282,000. From asking one question.
Do this this week
Open your benefits portal. Search for âstudent loan match,â âQSLP,â or âSECURE 2.0.â If itâs there, follow the enrollment steps. Most plans have you self-certify once a year that you made qualifying payments, with a claim window that runs at least three months past the plan year close.
If the portal shows nothing, message HR or your benefits contact with one specific question: âDoes our 401(k) plan offer a SECURE 2.0 qualified student loan payment match under Section 110?â Donât ask âdo you offer student loan help.â That gets you a link to a tuition-reimbursement page from 2011. Ask by the statute.
If the answer is no, thatâs the answer. Youâve spent five minutes. Ask them to consider adding it and move on. The trend line at big employers is toward yes, so next year might be different.
The Fed isnât helping
The Fed hasnât cut rates in seven months and the July 29 meeting is widely expected to be another hold. Your student loan interest rate isnât dropping. If your employer will match that payment into a 401(k), thatâs a check youâre leaving uncashed every month you donât ask.
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