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ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

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Figure 5-4<br />

Earnings by Age and Educational Attainment<br />

Median Annual Earnings<br />

80,000<br />

70,000<br />

60,000<br />

50,000<br />

40,000<br />

30,000<br />

Standard Repayment<br />

Window<br />

Bachelor's Degree<br />

Associate Degree<br />

High School Diploma<br />

Bachelor's Premium over High School<br />

20,000<br />

10,000<br />

0<br />

25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60<br />

Age<br />

Note: Earnings are median annual earnings for full-time, full-year workers of the noted age.<br />

Source: CPS ASEC 2015 and 2016<br />

While many borrowers who work when they leave school earn enough<br />

to pay their student debt on the standard 10-year plan,6 there is significant<br />

variation both in the size of student loans and in the returns to college.<br />

Further, because borrowers may face temporary unemployment or low<br />

earnings—especially at the start of their career (Abel and Deitz 2016)—some<br />

borrowers are needlessly constrained if they remain on the standard plan.<br />

Such considerations are especially pertinent to recent cohorts of students<br />

who graduated during or shortly after the Great Recession. Research shows<br />

that college graduates entering the labor market during a recession tend to<br />

experience sizeable negative income shocks, and that it can take years to<br />

recover (Kahn 2010; Oreopoulos, von Wachter, and Heisz 2012; Wozniak<br />

2010). Young workers are often the ones affected more severely by recessions<br />

(Hoynes, Miller, and Schaller 2012; Forsythe 2016; Kroeger, Cooke,<br />

and Gould 2016). A short repayment window could therefore lead to poor<br />

loan outcomes for these students despite a longer-term ability to repay.<br />

6 CEA calculations using the CPS ASEC and NPSAS 2012 show that at age 25, the earnings<br />

premium seen by a typical bachelor’s degree recipient working full-time and year-round is<br />

$16,000 a year, well above the $3,500 annual payment corresponding to a typical debt amount of<br />

about $27,000. Similarly, for an associate degree, the annual earnings premium of roughly $3,000<br />

is above the annual payment of $1,500 associated with the typical amount of about $11,000 that<br />

students borrow for this type of degree.<br />

Investing in Higher Education | 307

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