Can Your Student Loan Payments Earn a 401(k) Match?

Understanding the SECURE Act 2.0 Student Loan Provision

For many young professionals, there's often a difficult choice: focus on paying down student loans or contribute to retirement savings. The SECURE Act 2.0 aims to ease that tension — and starting in 2024, a new provision allows employers to help you do both.

What Changed?

The SECURE Act 2.0, passed in late 2022, includes a lesser-known feature that allows employers to treat qualified student loan payments the same as traditional employee contributions for the purpose of matching in a 401(k), 403(b), or SIMPLE IRA plan.

This means:👉 If you're paying down federal or private student loans, your employer can make matching contributions to your retirement account even if you’re not contributing from your paycheck.

How It Works

• You make a qualified student loan payment — this could be monthly, bi-weekly, or however your loan service is set up.

• Your employer, if they’ve adopted this provision, can then contribute a match to your retirement account, just as if you had made a traditional 401(k) contribution.

• The amount of the match is based on your plan’s current matching formula. For example, if your company matches 100% of the first 3% of your salary, that same formula can be applied to your loan payments.

Key Things to Know

• It’s optional: Employers are not required to offer this benefit, so it’s important to check with your HR or benefits department.

• You don’t need to contribute to your 401(k) to receive the match — but if you do, you may still qualify for both types of matching.

• The match counts toward your annual contribution limit for employer retirement plans.

• This rule applies to qualified student loan payments, which generally means payments made on behalf of the employee for education-related loans.

Why It Matters

This provision offers a meaningful way to reduce the long-term opportunity cost of delaying retirement contributions. For employees early in their careers — often burdened with loan payments — this creates an incentive to continue debt repayment without sacrificing retirement growth.

What Should You Do?

• Ask your employer if they’ve adopted the student loan match provision for 2024 and beyond.

• Keep track of your payments — employers may require documentation to provide the match.

• Review your retirement savings strategy to ensure you’re maximizing available benefits.

• Talk to a financial advisor if you’re unsure how to coordinate debt repayment with long-term investing goals.

Bottom Line

The SECURE Act 2.0 student loan matching rule is a win-win if your employer offers it: you can stay on track with loan repayment while still building for the future. Don’t leave money on the table — find out if your company’s retirement plan includes this new option.

Have questions about coordinating student loan payments with retirement planning? Let’s have a conversation.