WAILEA, Hawaii — As 1 in 5 American adults wonder how to pay off their combined $1.6 trillion in student debt, Sallie Mae executives and sales team members wrestled with a different question: Between meetings, how should they spend their time on their five-day paid trip to the luxury Fairmont resort on Wailea beach in Maui?
Sallie Mae brought more than 100 of its employees to Hawaii in August to celebrate a record year — $5 billion in student loans to 374,000 borrowers. The company said it didn't pay for employees' families to attend, but some did tag along.
"We said, 'Hey, look, Maui is a pretty nice spot.' And so if you wanted to stay a few days or want to bring family, that's up to you," Ray Quinlan, CEO of Sallie Mae, told NBC News on the grounds of the Fairmont Hotel.