Women Hold Two-Thirds of the Country's Outstanding Student Loan Debt
Americans owe around $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, with 44 million borrowers, and the average class of 2016 grad has $37,172 to repay. But according to a new study, the student loan debt crisis is a women's issue, as two-thirds of the outstanding student loan debt is held by women.
The easy explanation for this is the gender pay gap. "This report reveals that [women] also take on larger student loans than men," says the American Association of University Women. "And because of the gender pay gap, they have less disposable income with which to repay their loans after graduating from college, so they require more time to pay back their student debt than men."
According to the report, 44% of female undergrads take on student loans, slightly higher than the 39% of men that do. However, women also take out about 14% more in loans. The kicker is that, after graduation, women working full time tend to make 18% less than men a year after graduation, and 20% less four years after graduation, meaning it takes them longer to pay off debt.
Race also affects how student debt is paid. An analysis of expected family contributions to college tuition shows that white men benefit the most from family wealth, over $10,000, while black women can expect to get just $3,447 from their families to help pay for college. That means black women tend to take out the most loans. "The typical white family has 16 times the accrued wealth of the typical black family in the United States," says the report. "It is unsurprising, therefore, that students and families of different races and ethnicities have very different levels of resources to contribute to the costs of postsecondary education."
Recently, New York State took a step toward making college free, offering free tuition at city, state, and community colleges to students whose families make less than $125,000 a year. However, the tuition assistance wouldn't cover things like rent, books and supplies, and other fees that students often use their student loans to cover.
That women, and especially black women, devote so much of their (lower) salaries to paying off student loan debt means it's harder for them to do other things, like pay rent, save for a home, or pay for the larger share of medical expenses that women tend to have. It's just one more way women get left behind.
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