Amid a cookie sale, the Montana State University Billings Diversity
Initiative Group and the Women’s and Gender Studies Center have a point to
sell: women are paid about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
To draw attention to
this issue, the groups, in conjunction with the American Association of
University Women, plan to charge women 77 cents per cookie. Men will have to
pay a full dollar during the event on April 21. Proceeds from the sale will
benefit the MSUB Diversity Initiative Group.
Montana is among the 10
states with the largest of gender wage gaps, according to a National Women’s
Law Center study. The gap amounts to 74 cents for every dollar earned by a man,
or $11,378 annually. This is equivalent to more than a third of a woman’s
typical earnings.
The cookie sale
coincides with Equal Pay Day on April 14, which marks the day when a woman's
wage catches up to the earnings her male counterpart was paid the previous
year.
The event will take
place at City College in Jacket Student Central from 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
and on the University Campus in the Student Union Atrium from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.