As the events of the past year turned the world upside down, the importance of employee benefits has never been more evident, as many workers faced unprecedented financial challenges—not least of which because of crushing levels of student debt.

The benefits administration landscape begins to take on new significance if we look at student loan debt and the challenges of the COVID era in the context of gender equity. Consider the big picture:

• Women owe much more student loan debt than men. Student debt in the US has ballooned to $1.54 trillion, and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) shows that women carry nearly two-thirds of the balance, with black women carrying more debt than other women.
• Pay gaps make it harder for women to repay student loans. In 2020, PayScale found that when looking at the median salary for all men and women, women on average earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by men. Even when men and women perform the same jobs in the same regions with the same education level, women only earn 98 cents for every dollar earned by a man with the same qualifications. When looking at the pay gap between certain women of color and white men, the pay gap  often widens. For example, American Indian, Alaska Native, Black, and Latina women earned 75 cents for every dollar earned by white men.2 Pay gaps may contribute to women typically taking two years longer than men to repay their student loans, according to AAUW.
• The coronavirus pandemic has affected women disproportionately. Data from global charity Oxfam shows that women in the US are 1.8 times more likely to lose their jobs due to the pandemic than men. During the pandemic mothers on average added twenty extra hours of housework and caregiving responsibilities to their schedules each week. The 2020 Women and Workplace study noted Black and Latina women spent more time on household duties than white women and were also more likely to be the family's sole breadwinners. In this context, it's no wonder women are facing greater mental health strain and professional burnout.

These realities have created a challenging financial environment for women, which is why workplace benefits have the potential to serve a particularly positive role in the lives of women employees. Many benefits and diversity programs already include tools that can help women address the problems that are affecting them the most.