Student-Loan Debt Is Weighing Down Higher Ed’s Own Workers

Debt is weighing on higher-education workers, affecting their day-to-day finances as well as their ability to save for retirement, a new report shows. The report, released Thursday by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources and the TIAA Institute, paints a worrying picture of employees’ financial health. Of the 1,210 higher-ed employees surveyed by the organizations in February and March, 80 percent said they held debt from both student loans and other sources. Nearly three-quarters of that population reported that their debt prevented them from adequately addressing other financial priorities — a condition that the report’s authors referred to as being “debt constrained.” The situation is worsened, they note, by the fact that inflation-adjusted salaries are lower now than they were before the pandemic. That said, the big picture isn’t entirely negative.