2024 Women in the Michigan Workforce Report Released

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LANSING, Mich. — Michigan women earn almost 20 cents less per dollar than their male counterparts, while having less opportunity to work full-time. 

That’s according to the second Women in Michigan Workforce Report, a collaboration of the Michigan Women’s Commission and the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics.

Women make up just under 50 percent of the Michigan labor force. Addressing issues that impact women’s education, earnings, and ability to participate in the labor force is in the best interest of the Michigan economy. The report discusses disparities faced by women to help define the scope of the issue. This summary provides some of the report’s key insights.

Read and download the full report.

This report was created in partnership with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO). We would like to particularly thank Director Stephanie Beckhorn, LEO’s Director of the Office of Employment and Training, for her support of this report.

Women in the Michigan Workforce - 2024 Report

This report aims to highlight key factors that contribute to challenges women in the workforce face. Discrepancies in average pay, hours worked, and labor force participation are just some of the areas highlighted. This report is an updated version of the 2021 Women in the Michigan Workforce report with an expanded focus on education, training, and regional information. In addition, the current report uses different age groupings and calculations, so it is not directly comparable to the 2021 report.

Executive Summary

  • Michigan women who work full-time, year-round earn approximately 81 cents per dollar that men earn. This discrepancy only becomes more prominent when looking at hours worked, race and ethnicity, and educational attainment. 
  • Labor force participation rates for women are below those of men. In Michigan, women had a participation rate of 57.3 percent which is nearly 10 percentage points below the rate of 67.2 percent for men.
  • Women are more likely than men to hold multiple jobs and are less likely to work full-time. Approximately 50 percent of women worked more than 35 hours per week compared to nearly 70 percent of men. 
  • Poverty is more likely to impact women than men. In 2022, 14.6 percent of Michigan women were impoverished compared to 12.1 percent of men. Like earnings, this gap only becomes more pronounced when broken down by different demographics.
  • Women often work in service-related industries and occupations that typically offer below-average earnings. Roughly four of every five women worked in an industry where average earnings for women were below the all-industry average.
  • Women are underrepresented in STEM fields, which are typically high-demand, high-wage occupations. Despite earning close to 60 percent of the total degrees and certificates awarded, women only accounted for about 38.8 percent of degrees and certificates in STEM.
  • The share of women in Registered Apprenticeships is growing, but still small. Women made up one in every 10 active registered apprentices, an increase from the roughly one in every 12 in 2014.
  • Women with children under five participate in the labor force at rates more than 20 percentage points lower than their male counterparts. This, and other data, shows the responsibility of caring for young children often falls on women, impacting their ability to work.

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