Women in the Michigan Workforce - 2021 Report

Executive Summary

• Both men and women experienced sharp drops in employment in April 2020 due to the pandemic. Men saw a 23.3 percent reduction in employment, while the drop for women registered 26.3 percent. However, the initial massive employment loss for women continued for a longer period and has failed to recover, while male employment has nearly bounced back to pre-pandemic levels.
• Between February and December 2020, roughly 136,000 women left the labor force, registering a 5.8 percent decline. Comparatively, the male labor force has recovered from its early pandemic loss, and was up nearly 18,000 during the same period (0.7 percent).
• Michigan women who worked full-time, year-round in 2019 counted median earnings of $41,475 compared to $53,150 for men. Meaning, women working full-time make about 78 cents on the dollar compared to men. Nationally, women made $43,215 while men made $52,989, representing an earnings gap of 82 cents per every dollar men earn, on average.
• Earnings not only varied by gender, but also by race or ethnicity. When comparing full-time, year-round workers, for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men made, white, non-Hispanic women made 76 cents, Black/African American women earned 65 cents and Hispanic/Latina women made even less at 57 cents.
• Only 57 percent of women work full-time, year-round compared to 71 percent of men. This adds up to about 460,000 less women than men working full-time, which is even more stark given the fact there are about 15,000 more women ages 16 to 64 than men in the state.
• In the fourth quarter of 2020, 5.8 percent of women in Michigan had multiple jobs, while this number was considerably lower for Michigan men (4.0 percent). This was higher than the 5.2 percent of women with multiple jobs at the national level.
• Women tend to be concentrated in industry sectors with average wages below the all-industry average. About two out of every three Michigan women holding a payroll job were employed in an industry sector with below average wages in 2019.Additionally, 99 percent of detailed industry groups in Michigan had an average pay disparity favoring men in 2019.
• Overall, women are more likely to experience poverty than men; in 2019, an estimated 14.0 percent of all women were below the poverty level compared to 11.9 percent of men. Roughly 699,000 women were below the poverty level statewide compared to 570,000 men.
• Over 470,000 Michigan households are families led by women with no spouse present. This represents almost 12 percent of Michigan households and is more than double the number of male-led family households with no spouse present (201,200 or 5 percent).
• The state is home to 139,000 women over 85. This nearly doubles the 74,000 men over that age. As individuals live longer, they either need to save more money for retirement or find jobs with retirement benefits. This can be especially difficult for women as they earn less than their male counterparts and are more likely to work part-time, lacking benefits