Last week was Pay Equity Week on the University campus, the week when people around the country recognize the wage gap between working women and men, and offer remedies to address pay inequity. March is symbolic of the point into the new year that a woman must work in order to earn the wages paid to a man in the previous year. According to the statistics released in 2014 by the United States Census Bureau, women are paid, on average, 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts are paid – a gap of 23 cents. And this is even lower for African American women and Hispanic women by almost 15 cents.

Here in Alabama, working women still get paid under the national average. We are paid about 75 cents on the dollar compared to men, with African American women being paid 63 cents and Hispanic women being paid 43 cents on the dollar. It’s shameful women’s pay doesn’t even measure up to the national average. The wage gap costs the average American full-time woman between $700,000 and $2 million over the course of her lifetime.

Fair pay takes real change to make a difference and here at the University we have what it takes. We have the resources that many communities and even other universities don’t have as well. The Women and Gender Resource Center have annual events to raise awareness about pay inequality such as Start Smart, a workshop in partnership with American Association of University Women and the Wage Project to give women the tools and strategies to negotiate equal pay when they graduate. The University is one of the few schools in the national that has this program, being commended for our encouragement to foster not only conversations but actually change toward equality.

The Women and Gender Resource Center Student Leadership Council plans, develops and implements a number of race and gender initiatives throughout the year.