Strapped by Tamara Draut

Higher and Higher Education:

Every year, 410,000 college-qualified students from households with income less than $50,000 enroll in community college instead of going to a four-year college. Another 168,000 college-qualified students do not enroll in college at all.
By 1994, males 25-24 without college degrees were earning roughly the same amount as their similarly educated grandparents earned in 1949.
Less than a third of young adults aged 25 to 29 had a bachelor's degree or higher in 2003
The maximum Pell Grant award, the nation's premier program for helping poor kids pay for college, covers about one-third of the costs of a four-year college today. It covered three-quarters in the 1970s.
In 1948, veterans received a grant of $500 a year, enough to pay for all but $25 of tuition at Harvard. In 2003, the average federal grant to students was $2,421, which falls $24,000 short of tuition and fees at Harvard.
In 1977, college students borrowed about $6 billion (2002 dollars) to help pay for college. College students borrowed $56 billion in 2003. The number of students enrolled in college grew by 44 percent between 1977 and 2003, but student loan volume rose by 833 percent.
Three-quarters of full-time college students are holding down jobs.
Only 53 percent of all students who enroll in four-year colleges end up getting their bachelors degree within 5 years.
Nearly three-quarters of students at the nation's top 146 colleges come from families in the top quarter of the socioeconomic status scale (SES). Only 3 percent are from the lowest SES quartile and only 10 percent are from the entire bottom half of the SES distribution.
The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Aid Assistance projects that if current enrollment trends persist, over the next decade 4.4 million college-ready students from households with income below $50,000 will not attend a four-year college and 2 million students will not attend any college.

Paycheck Paralysis:

In 1972, the typical male high school graduate aged 25 to 34 earned $42,000, in inflation adjusted dollars. Three decades later, male high school graduates in this age group are earning just over $29,000.
In 1972, a young-adult male with a bachelor's degree or higher earned on average $52,087 (2002 dollars). In 2002, young male college grads earned $48,955.
In 2002, Gen Xers worked on average 45.6 hours a week, nearly three hours more than young Baby Boomers worked in 1977.
In 1975, the top income quintile of households aged 25 to 34 received about 36 percent of the nation's income for that age group. By 2003, it had grown to 46 percent.
Today's young workers who have "some college, but no degree" can expect lifetime earnings of about $1.5 million. Associates degree holders will earn about $1.6 million. On the other hand, young adults with a bachelors degree can expect to earn $2.1 million and a master's degree holder will earn about $2.5 million.
Roughly 33 percent, or one in three, of those aged 18 to 34 are without health insurance, the highest percentage of any group.
During the 1990s, the number of jobs handled by temp agencies doubled, growing from just under 1 million jobs to just over 2 million by the end of the century.
In 2002, about 9 percent of white adults under the age of 30 were living in poverty, compared to 25 percent of African American young adults and 15 percent of Hispanic young adults.

Generation Debt

Since 1992-93 the average college grad's student loan debt has grown from $12,100 to $19,300 in 2003 (inflation-adjusted dollars).
Over 25 percent of college graduates in 2003 had student loan debt higher than $25,000, up from 7 percent in 1992-93.
In 2002, 14 percent of young adults reported that student loans caused them to delay marriage, up from 7 percent in 1991. One in five said their debt has caused them to delay having children, up from 12 percent in 1991. Forty percent reported they delayed buying a home because of their loans, compared to 25 percent in 1991. Seventeen percent significantly changed careers because of their debt, about the same as 1991.
In 1983, the median consumer debt for 25-to-34-year-olds was $3,989 (in 2001 dollars). By 2001, the median consumer debt for households under 25 had tripled to $12,000.
In 2002, the average college senior had six credit cards and an average balance of just over $3,200.
During the 1990s, credit card debt among those under 34 grew by 47 percent.
Young Gen Xers, those aged 18 to 24, have 22 percent higher credit card debt than their Baby Boomer counterparts did in 1989. (112)
In 2001, 25-to-34-year-olds averages $4,088 in credit card debt - 55 percent higher than it was for Baby Boomers of the same age in 1989.

The High Cost of Putting a Roof over Your Head

The percentage of young adults who are still living with their parents started rising in the 1980s and continued to increase steadily until 1998, when 15 percent of men and 8 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds were living with their parents.
Four out of ten young adults move back with their parents at least once.
Between 1995 and 2002, rents in nearly all of the largest metropolitan areas rose astronomically: Median rents in San Francisco ballooned 76 percent; Boston, 62 percent; San Diego; 54 percent; even median rents in less costly Denver shot up 49 percent.
Between 1995 and 2000, more young, single, college-educated people (aged 25 to 39) moved into major cities than moved out.
In 1970, the median rent paid by 25-to-34-year-olds was $497 in inflation adjusted dollars. By 2000, young adults were spending 25 percent more on rent -- $627.
In 2000, one-third of young adults between 25 and 34 spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent (the standard threshold of affordability) - up from less than 20 percent in 1970.
According to data from the Chicago Title and Trust, the average first-time home buyer today is 32 years old, about four years older than 1976.
In 2000, half of white households aged 25 to 34 were homeowners, while only a quarter of black households and a third of Hispanic and Asian households of the same age group were homeowners.
The median monthly mortgage payment for those in the 25-to-34-year-old group grew by almost one third between 1980 and 2000.
The percentage of 25-to-34-year-olds spending more than 30 percent of their income on their mortgage each month rose from 10.5 percent in 1980 to 14.5 percent in 2000.

And Baby Makes Broke

Two-thirds of parents with children under age 5 are under 34.
The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not provide paid family leave to new parents.
In 1970, 19 percent of first births were to women ages 25 and older; by 2000, this percentage had increased to over 50 percent.
According to the USDA, having a child under age 2 today costs a middle-income couple about $800 a month, about18 percent of their pretax income.
For middle-income families, the cost of raising a child born in 1960 to age 18 was $155,141 (in 2003 dollars). The cost of raising a child born in 2003 to age 18 rose to $178,590, a 15 percent increase.
Today the average two-parent family with two children under age 5 spends 11 percent of their budget on child care, up from only 1 percent in 1960.
Nationwide, about 60 percent of working families with children under age 5 pay for child care, at a cost of $325 a month on average.
Sixteen states cut off eligibility for child care assistance at 150 percent of the poverty level - which is $23,500 for a family of three.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 49 percent of workers, or 59 million people, don't get paid sick days either for themselves or to care for a sick family member.

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