MINNEAPOLIS — A growing number of companies are dangling a recruitment perk tailor-made for the millennial generation: debt relief.

Free snacks and gym memberships don’t hold the allure they once did for young people entering the working world. Buried under student loans of more than $29,000 on average, they want help.

“For this millennial group, it’s more important than the 401(k),” said Tim DeMello, CEO and founder of Gradifi Inc., which expects to set up loan pay-down plans for 100 companies this year. “They’re 24 years old. They don’t care about retirement.”

Companies are dreaming up a variety of incentives. Consulting giant PwC, for example, will pay $100 a month for up to six years against college loans of young workers.

Other firms are enticing potential hires with a lump-sum contribution — say, $10,000 — over a set time period or capping low monthly payments with a balloon after a couple of years to build loyalty.

Although certain industries have offered repayment programs for years, PwC is the largest U.S. corporation to jump on the trend. Working through Gradifi, the program is open to any employee with less than six years on the job.

For Scott Papez, signing up for PwC’s program, which begins this spring, is a no-brainer.

The 24-year-old started work as a tax associate in the company’s downtown Minneapolis office in July, carrying $40,000 in college debt from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PwC’s contribution will cover about a third of the payments he and his wife make against their loans, giving him more freedom to plan for the future.

“You do think, when will we ever be able to afford a house, or we’d love to start a family down the road,” Papez said. “But the rate of saving for that kind of stuff is really reduced by the student debt that we carry.”

PwC estimates 45 percent of its U.S. workforce — about 22,000 employees — could be eligible for the program. The benefit could shave $10,000 off workers’ debt and shorten the payoff by up to three years.

“As we were developing these programs, we thought of all the different ways to compensate our people,” said Tom Montminy, who runs the Minneapolis PwC office. “Sometimes you’ve got to go right to the source and say, ‘Let’s give it to them where they need it most,’ which is paying down loans.”

Just 3 percent of companies offer repayment plans, according to National Debt Relief, a debt-settlement company.

They’re most often offered in law, medicine or technology fields, where talent is tight and education expensive. Teachers and government workers also may qualify for some programs.

Millennials, those born in the early 1980s to mid-1990s, have higher educational debt than any other generation. Nearly seven in 10 recent college graduates owe money, according to the Institute for College Access and Success. Half say they would rather have their company make loan payments than contribute toward their health care or retirement.