Student Debt Weighs Down Women More. Blame The Wage Gap : NPR

Student Debt Weighs Down Women More. Blame The Wage Gap : NPR: Women have made gains in the workplace but there's still a wage gap. Although attending college costs the same for both genders, women are more burdened by student loan debt after graduating. They spend a higher proportion of their salaries on paying off debt because, well, they have lower salaries to work with than men — from the very start.

A study by the American Association of University Women found that one year after college, nearly half of women working full time, and 39 percent of men, were devoting more than 8 percent of their income toward their debt. That may seem small, but when you are fresh out of college, the combination of living expenses, credit card bills or debt, a 401(k) and a little left over for savings — if you can hack it — adds up.

It does so more quickly for women. College-educated women made 82 percent of men's salaries one year after graduating in 2009, according to the AAUW study.

"For many young women, the challenge of paying back student loans is their first encounter with the pay gap," the study says.