Report: Michigan Women Still Make Less Then Men

LANSING (WWJ) - For every dollar a man makes in Michigan, a woman makes 74 cents.

That's according to a study by the National Women's Law Center, which reports Michigan has the seventh-worst wage gap in the country.

That gap widens when you look at African-American women, who earn about 69 cents to every dollar paid to a white man. Hispanic women make about 55-cents on the dollar.

None of this comes as a surprise to former State Senator Gilda Jacobs, who worked for equal pay.

She says women's fight for equal rights isn't an antique issue -- and sex-based discrimination is still present in American today.

"The fact is that we haven't really made any progress and I think that's really the important issue," Jacobs told WWJ Newsradio 950's Beth Fisher. "We know that this gap still exists and we know that it's worse for women of color and as we try to improve our economy  -- we really have to try to address these important disparities and these gaps."

Jacobs said this is a problem in today's world -- as it's now common for a woman to be the major breadwinner in her families. "So it becomes even more important, because they're trying to support families on less money than their male counterparts," she said.

Working single mothers with children struggled to make ends meet, according to the Law Center. In 2011, over a quarter, or almost or almost an additional 2.5 million working single mother families were on the edge of poverty, falling between 100 and 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

Yet, children don't seem to always be a factor. The study reports the typical never-married woman with no children, working full time, is paid 72.9 percent of what a man working full-time  is paid.

Get more from the study at this link.