College and university employees are the lifeblood of American higher education. Since the great recession, a changing student market, declining governmental allocations, and tight labor market conditions have compounded to create budgetary challenges for colleges and universities. The combination of these competitive forces has resulted in soaring tuition rates and stagnant and declining wages for higher education personnel as institutions struggle to maintain solvency amid economic turbulence. However, one form of compensation unique to higher education, the dependent tuition benefit, is widely available across the industry as a largely tax-free form of compensation. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess employee perceptions of the value of a dependent tuition benefit and to assess its importance in employee recruitment and retention at a medium-sized public institution in the Midwest. Specifically, this study examined the relationship between employee pay and number of dependents and three dependent variables: perceived monetary benefit value; the importance of the benefit in employee recruitment; and the importance of the benefit in employee retention. Results of this study suggest that family structure has significant implications for employee valuations and assessments of dependent tuition benefits. Employees’ number of dependents was a significant positive predictor of the benefit’s monetary benefit value, the benefit’s importance in recruitment, and the benefit’s importance in retention. This relationship was moderated by marital status for the benefit’s importance in recruitment. Along with education level, marital status also moderated the relationship between number of dependents and the benefit’s perceived cash equivalent value. Additionally, while individual income was not a significant predictor on its own, it became a significant positive predictor for both the benefit’s importance in recruitment and the benefit’s importance in retention when moderated by the not married marital status. The results of this study offer colleges and universities new insights in curating and evaluating benefit offerings as part of a comprehensive human resource management strategy. Suggestions for how institutions may further leverage these results and the benefit offering to more effectively differentiate the organization as an attractive employment option in a highly competitive market are also discussed.