How would you feel if your employer offered to pay your rent?

US audiobook company, Audible, developed a housing lottery for its staff in January this year. The 20 winners were each paid $2,000 a month in rent if they signed a two-year lease in a newly renovated building only 10-minutes from the office.

Audible followed up the deal by offering $250 a month to any employee who lives in or moves to Newark, where the office is located. Of the 1,000 employees in the office, more than two dozen took up the offer.

Audible is one of a growing number of American companies helping staff with housing costs, either to assist with covering expenses in high rent areas, or to encourage staff to improve their lifestyle with a shorter commute. Some companies are offering high-level staff support with mortgage costs.

A recent survey for the Los Angeles Business Council found that, of 14 large employers in the area, around half offered workers help with housing costs.

"What they’re trying to do is to get people to give Newark a try,”  Jeffrey Lubell, the director of housing and community initiatives for research firm Abt Associates, told the New York Times. 

The founder and CEO of Audible, Donald R Katz, has been keen to promote Newark as a place for the company's employees to live.

Reducing commute times will improve their quality of life, he says.

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