Employees aren't going to shun free money, but someemployer benefits are more coveted than others. How does studentdebt repayment, the perk of the moment,rank? Not all that high, finds a new survey from Student Loan Hero.

Last fall, a survey found thatan overwhelming percentage of young workers want to work for acompany that offers some help paying back their student loans. But whencompared to health insurance, 401(k) matching, and paidvacation, the student debt benefit doesn't win out inimportance for employees. "This one was pretty black-and-white,"said Andrew Josuweit, Student Loan Hero's chief executiveofficer.

Health insurance coverage still trumps all. Of 1,763 surveyrespondents with student debt, almost 80 percent said theywould prefer a health care plan over student loan assistance. "Thatis like Maslow's hierarchy of needs," added Josuweit. "They can'trepo your diploma."

Historically, employer-sponsored health insurance has beenthe most coveted benefit among workers. Despite predictions of itsdemise following the passage of the Affordable Care Act,employers continue tosee it as an important recruitment and retentiontool. Respondents were roughly split when it came topicking money for loans vs. the perks of a paid vacation and a401(k). "It wasn't a slam dunkin any direction," said Josuweit.

Most likely, employees won't have to choose between student debtrepayment and more traditional benefits. Most of the companies thathave started paying off employee student debts also offer healthinsurance coverage, some sort of 401(k) matching, and paid timeoff. For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the higher-profilecompanies to offer student loanassistance, gets high rankings onGlassdoor for its benefits package, which includes 401(k) matchingup to 6 percent of an employees's salary, 15 paid days of vacation,and health coverage. Student loan pay-down is just an arrow in itsrecruitment quiver.

The Student Loan Hero study suggests that the benefit issomething recruits consider when weighing jobs. Almost 40percent of respondents said that it is either "extremely" or "very"important that a job offer includes student loan repaymentassistance as a benefit. An additional 23.5 percentconsidered it "moderately important." Younger workers aged 18to 24 — who tend to have more debt and less money to pay it —coveted the benefit more than any other demographic. "The youngeryou are, the more aggressively you're trying to get out of debt andland on your feet," said Josuweit.

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