The American Association of Airport Executives will offer employees up to $1,000 annually for five years to help them pay for their children's college educations.

The new benefit, announced Friday, will be available to employees who have worked at AAAE for at least a year. The money will be directed into employees' 529 college savings plans.

"What can you do as an employer to signal to your employees that they matter to you, that you want them around and you're trying to help them solve hard problems?" AAAE CEO Todd Hauptli told CEO Update. "Paying for college is just about as hard a problem as a parent has."

Unlike 401(k) contributions, payments into 529 plans are not matching contributions and therefore employees do not need to redirect money from their pay into the accounts, although many parents do anyway. AAAE's contributions are also capped at $1,000 a year per employee, no matter how many children they have.

The association was able to pull from existing revenues to pay for the new benefit. The perk is in addition to student loan reimbursements AAAE already offers, which can be up to $1,000 a year.

My philosophy "is you offer an array of benefits and you don't get too worried about it if any one benefit doesn't apply to every single person on the team," Hauptli said.

AAAE is not the only association that has recently turned to helping staff pay for college as a recruitment and retention tool. The Consumer Technology Association and American Bankers Association both implemented programs in recent months to help employees pay back student loans.

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