When it comes to money, millennial women don’t exactly see the future through rose-colored glasses.
According to a new survey by online loan marketplace LendingTree, only 42% of young women are earning an annual income of $50,000 or more, compared to 57% of millennial men.
Meanwhile, women are saddled with debt, with an average total debt of $68,834, and average student loan debt of $14,758. On the contrary, young men have an average total debt of $53,017, and average student loan debt of $8,500.
Despite this, women tend to demonstrate greater financial responsibility. They have higher credit scores, with 36% of women having a credit score of 700 or higher compared to only 30% of men. The most common financial priority for women–cited by 23.4% of respondents–is putting more money into savings. For men, the most popular financial priority–cited by 27.8%–is earning more money.
“Millennial women being most concerned with increasing savings could be due to the income disparity between men and women,” says Doug Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree. “Because of the pay gap, women may feel the need to save more of what they make to have a substantial amount in their savings.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women earned 81.1 cents for every dollar that men earned in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Lebda explains that the student loan debt crisis, in particular, has become a huge issue for millennials, and women carry a larger burden. “Women are outnumbering men in college and are more likely to pursue a degree beyond a bachelor’s degree, leaving them with greater student loan balances,” he says. “With millennial women making less on average, it is more difficult to pay back their student loans.”
Among the highest-earning millennials, 11% of men have an annual salary between $100,000 and $149,999, and nearly 5% make $150,000 or more. In comparison, less than 6% of millennial women earn between $100,000 and $149,999 a year, and just 1.6% make $150,000 or more. This was based on LendingTree's survey of 1,050 millennials born in the years 1980 to 1995.
Another survey by Experian found that despite men’s higher average income, their credit and financial management skills lag behind women’s.
“Even with more credit cards, women have fewer overall debts and are managing to pay those debts on time," Michele Raneri, vice president of analytics and new business development, Experian, said in a statement. "Men appear to be taking on a bit more than women, specifically when it comes to the homes and the cars they buy, which could be affecting their credit scores."
According to a separate study by BlackRock, confidence among Americans in general about their personal finances has declined since the 2016 presidential election, from 46% pre-election to 39% today.
Furthermore, only 33% of the women surveyed by BlackRock say they’re currently confident in their financial outlook, which accounts for factors such as saving money, paying off debt and growing personal wealth, compared to 46% of men. In 2015, 42% of women and 57% of men reported being confident in their financial outlook.
