The Pink Tax On Your Student Loans

IN 2016, 56 PERCENT OF undergraduate students nationwide were female. Women had heard the call: To excel, enroll. But with record matriculation rates has come something else—record debt. Women are now responsible for two thirds of student loan debt in the United States, according to the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

- Mattie Kahn

By next year the amount women will need to pay back is estimated to total one trillion dollars, with the average female borrower owing around $21,000 after graduation. That’s a colossal sum, and it’s roughly $2,700 more than her average male counterpart owes, according to the AAUW.

What gives? For one, the wage gap. Women tend to earn less for their work even before school, which means they need more money than men do to finance higher education. (And in the postgrad workforce, the pay gap also means it takes women longer to pay off loans. Degree in hand, women make 26 percent less than men on average; black and Hispanic women, who make less on the dollar than white women, fall further behind.)