There are only two states where the median monthly student debt payment is less than $200: Alaska and Wyoming. Just two other states join Alaska and Wyoming in having median student debt under $20,000.
Those numbers come to us courtesy of a new report from the People’s Action Institute. And if you have to pay a couple hundred dollars a month toward your student loans, it has an impact on how much you have to earn to support yourself. Without student debt, the national living wage for a single adult is $17.28 an hour.
When student debt payments are added to the traditional living wage, the national student debt living wage for a single adult climbs to $18.67 per hour. Across the country, adding in median monthly student debt payments would increase single adult living wages to more than $16 per hour in every state and more than $17 per hour in most states.
That’s not an equal opportunity burden:
Due to some of the same factors blocking many people of color from high-wage employment, student debt especially impacts students of color and their families. A 2013 study found that while 65 percent of white households borrowed money for college, 67 percent of Latinos and 80 percent of black households borrowed. Additionally, black and Latino students are more likely to attend for-profit institutions, which notoriously require students to take out significant student loan debt, and are less likely to complete their degree, leaving them with student loan debt but less access to high-wage employment.
Student debt isn’t just a burden on individuals. It’s weighing our economy down. And the answer is clear: free public higher education.