(Bloomberg) -- Gabi Gutierrez, like the typical collegegraduate who took out loans, graduated from Virginia Techthis year with around $30,000 in student debt.

Unlike most of her peers, Gutierrez, an associate in forensicservices at PricewaterhouseCoopers, will have help paying offthose loans from her employer.

Starting in July, PwC will put $100 a month toward her $250burden, a contribution that could total $7,200 over time.

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PwC is one of a handful of companies offering to pay part oftheir employees' student debts, anincreasingly popular perk.

Following PwC's announcement over the summer,Natixis, an asset management firm, will announce its own studentloan repayment program today, Tuesday, Dec. 8.

The company will contribute up to $10,000 toward studentloans and is making the perk available to any of the company's525 U.S.-based employees that have been with the company for atleast five years.

Nataxis will pay the benefit in lump sums: $5,000 after fiveyears of working at the firm, followed by annual $1,000 paymentsover the succeeding five years.

Student loan payment programs are still a relativelyuncommon perk.

Only 3 percent of more than 450 surveyed companies offer studentloan repayments programs as a part of their benefit plans,according to the Society for Human Resource Management's 2015Employee Benefit Survey.

Some predict that companies will soon catch on in a big way."Those numbers are understated because there is a lot of pent-updemand for this stuff," said Bruce Elliott, SHRM’s manager ofcompensation and benefits. This was also the first year SHRMincluded the benefit on its survey. "I do think it’s the beginningof a trend."

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So far, companies that hire swaths of college grads—a group thattends to have a lot of debt—are at the forefront of the trend. PwC,for example, plans to hire more than 11,000through campus recruiting this year.

Most employers tend to put from $100 to $250 a month towardan employees's debts while capping the amount they'll contribute,said Tim DeMello, founder and chief executive of Gradifi,a platform that helps employers such as PwC contribute to employeestudent loan payments.

An employer's contribution probably won't cover itsworkers' entire debt load, but it can make a meaningful dent.Some companies offer loan refinancing reductions, a slightlydifferent, related benefit.

"We're seeing that it always comes down to meaningfulcontribution," said DeMello. Gradifi has signed up nearly 100employers, including PwC and some other "high profile" clients,DeMello said. The company will start rolling out payments atthe beginning of next year.

"Anything helps when it comes to paying off a loan," saidGutierrez, 23. She is currently saving money to move outof her parents' home in Northern Virginia. "One hundreddollars a month is a great help to me."

As with many benefits, employers hope student loanassistance will help attract and retain the best workers.

"We're a very innovative company; we rely on innovation to moveus forward," said Ed Farrington, executive vice president ofbusiness development and retirement at Natixis. "In order tocontinue that edge, we have to attract the best and brightest."

As the economy has improved, employee retention and turnover isone of the biggest issues facing employers. Employers haveoffered an array of strategic perks, including generouspaternity leave, to battle attrition, and Natixis hopesbeing at the forefront of the benefits trend will give itsorganization an edge.

There's another advantage to piling on benefits as a recruitmenttool. If the economy sours, it's much easier tocut a benefit than a salary; employees don't feel the sting asmuch. "They are flexible," said SHRM's Elliot. (Some surveysindicate that employees value benefits more than payraises.)

Still, not all perks are created equal.Health care was the top-rated benefit for employees in termsof importance, probably because it's a high and risingcost.

"Employers aren't doing this to be nice," said Elliot."They're doing this as an investment—and to differentiatethemselves so they can continue to pull from the top of the talentpool."

Although few companies offer student debt assistance, it rankshigh among coveted perks, especially for millennials, who make upone in three American workers—a share that's expected to growto almost half by 2020.

A recent survey by Iontuition, a student loanmanagement platform, found that 80 percent of the 1,000people surveyed wanted to work for a company that offersstudent loan repayment assistance.

Paying off debt has more immediate benefits than,say, taking advantage of a company's 401k plan."Employees love this benefit," said Brendon McQueen, the founderand chief executive of Tuition.io, a payment platform that workswith employers. "They already understand the pain of studentloans. You don't have to educate them on what a 529 is. Peoplealready get it. They're like, 'Where do I sign up?'"

Gutierrez hasn't tapped into PwC's retirement benefits yet.

She's more concerned with paying off her loans. "I'm also payingoff a car payment, and I wanted to make sure I could save up asmuch as possible right now to be comfortable when my loan paymentbegan," she said.

Despite enthusiasm from workers, adoption andimplementation has so far been slow. PwC announced its programearlier this fall, but it doesn't plan to funnel money intoemployees's accounts until July.

"It's pretty complex," said Tuition.Io's McQueen. "[For]employers who don't have this ... it's super-hard to build productsthat are outside of their core business." Some companies are alsowaiting to see if the benefit works before they promise it toemployees.

Like many trendy benefits, this perk will help only a small,elite portion of the workforce.

Over the next three years, however, Elliot predicts that debtrepayment, on some level, will become as common as healthbenefits.

"It's a big-ass problem: $1.3 trillion is a big number." saidGradifi's DeMello, referring to the national student debtbalance. "These types of initiatives are going to really help."

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