Bills Address Equal Pay For Women

A group of state lawmakers are pushing a series of bills designed to put women on equal pay footing with men in Michigan.

Lawmakers, some who attended Tuesday’s announcement, have been trying for years to move legislation to bridge the pay gap between women and men. And each year they come up empty handed. But State Representative Marcia Hovey-Wright, a Muskegon Democrat, predicts this year will be different.

That’s due in part to the number of bills they’ve introduced — eight as opposed to four — and the fact they have mirrored their legislation after bills that have become law in other states.

The bills would, among other things, require employers to divulge salaries if someone asks, make it illegal to pay women less than men if they’re doing the same job and lay out penalties for doing so.