By: Nia Taylor

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) — At the beginning of the month, the University of Arkansas System launched a new benefit for its employees called the  Annual Leave Exchange Program.. Employees in the University of Arkansas System can now exchange their paid time off to help pay off their student loans through the benefit.

The director of administrative communications, Colton Morgan, says that for employees to be eligible for this benefit, they must meet a few requirements.

“If you earn annual leave, you have to have 80 hours of leave in your bank and that you have not had any disciplinary action surrounding leave in this past year.”

One of the first users of the benefit, Vince Capps, has been working for the U of A for more than 10 years and has been dealing with student loans for more than a decade. He says this was a great way to get some student loan relief.

“The processing time was almost immediate. I got an acceptance about an hour later. Of course, I don’t get to see the pay slip until this coming Friday. I only used a couple of months.”

“It definitely fulfills their promise of being an employer of choice. I don’t see a lot of other employers having this benefit, so that’s very special for me because I have really been wanting to pay off my loans. So for them to be able to provide this type of relief definitely fulfills both of our missions.”

The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees created this program to address the issue of unused paid time off.

According to Morgan, unused paid time off accumulated by employees caused the university to be liable for that money.

One part of the program that has sparked conversation is the 14% tax on exchanged PTO, which acts as a service fee from the IRS because the university cannot do a one-to-one exchange, Morgan says. This has raised questions about the value of the program.

Capps added that the benefits of the program outweigh the tax.

“I mean, 14% — I’d probably pay more than that just to get some money back because I’m not going to use but so much vacation time.”

The limit on how much an employee can convert each year is $7,500, and Morgan adds the program’s policy states that the number can change with the university president’s approval.

The benefit is not only open to employees on the Fayetteville campus, but all employees across campuses within the University of Arkansas System.