See What Your State Is Doing to Close the Gender Wage Gap

"Federal policy-making is at best stalled on this issue," says one equal pay expert

States are offering creative solutions to expand protections for women and close federal loopholes in the fight to end the gender wage gap, NBC News reported.

It's not just progressive states like California taking the wage gap seriously, either — North Dakota passed a bill in 2015 strengthening employer salary reporting requirements. In fact, state lawmakers have introduced at least 180 bills across the country aimed at shrinking the pay gap, with seven enacted and dozens more pending.

"I'm glad that states are really focusing on equal pay and exploring new policy solutions to ensure women are paid equally to men, in part because federal policy-making is at best stalled on this issue, and at worst, we might be seeing rollbacks in coming years," said Emily Martin, a legal expert on equal pay with the National Women's Law Center.

NBC News took a look at how much women in each state earn compared to men, and how much the state protects equal pay.

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