Houston, we have a problem. While the grip of lower investment returns and insufficient savings pulls baby boomer retirement expectations down to earth, student debt is preventing millennials' retirement plans from even lifting off. 

Twenty-seven percent of retirement plan sponsors said they hear a moderate number of millennial employees citing student loan debt as a barrier to saving, while another 9 percent reported hearing a high degree of student loan complaints, according to a new study from The Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), a Chicago-based not-for-profit representing employer sponsors of retirement plans.

Another 25 percent of plan sponsors said they have a low degree of millennial employees citing student loan debt as an obstacle to retirement saving.

Sponsors in the financial, services, technology and telecommunications industries were the most likely to have a high degree of millennial employees cite educational debt as a retirement savings barrier.

The PSCA cited a Pew Research Center study finding that almost 70 percent of recent college graduates say they borrowed money to finance their education, compared to less than 50 percent of college students in the early 1990s, and other research that places the average student loan debt burden for the class of 2015 at more than $35,000.

The PSCA estimates that, assuming an average starting salary of around $48,000 per year, taxes and debt reduce a college graduate’s net take-home pay to just over $32,000 a year, or $2,699 a month, to cover expenses and savings. Student loan debt accounts for $4,840 of that reduction.

Only 16 percent of the survey’s respondents said they address student loans with their employees in some way. Among the larger companies in the survey, that number rises to 25 percent.

Despite their employees' struggles, companies have been slow to adopt student loan repayment programs, according to the PSCA. Only 1.4 percent of the plan sponsors in the study offered student loan repayment plans, while another 12 percent are considering them.

Tuition reimbursement plans, on the other hand, have been widely adopted by the study’s participants, with 70 percent offering the benefit.

The PSCA found some indicators that educational debt continues to grow as a problem for retirement plan participants. Almost two-thirds of the plan sponsor participants, 62 percent, said that more than half of their employees had a four-year college degree or higher, while another 30 percent said that between 10 percent and 50 percent of their employees were at that educational level.

The PSCA polled 149 plan sponsors, all organizational members, in April. The average age of plan participants in the study was 41.6 years old.