[403] MTSU Goes 'In The Red' To Show Gender-Based Wage Disparities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 8, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU GOES ‘IN THE RED’ TO SHOW GENDER-BASED WAGE DISPARITIES
Equal Pay Day to Draw Attention to Male Earnings Advantage in Working World

(MURFREESBORO) –MTSU will observe Equal Pay Day with an information booth from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, on the Keathley University Center (KUC) knoll at MTSU. This event is free and open to the public.
The 2010 U.S. Census Bureau revealed in September 2010 that women who work full-time year-round make 77 cents on average for every dollar a male earns. Equal Pay Day is held in April each year because April symbolizes the month when women’s wages catch up to men’s wages from the previous year.
According to the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, the average woman loses $431,000 in pay over the course of a 40-year career. Highly educated women lose more than undereducated women. Over a 40-year period, women with a college degree or more higher education lose $713,000 compared to a $270,000 loss for women who fail to finish high school.
Participants are encouraged to wear red on Equal Pay Day to symbolize the fact that women are still “in the red” compared to men. Payday candy bars will be distributed. In case of inclement weather, the information booth will be moved inside to the first floor of the KUC.
This event is sponsored by the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, the American Association of University Women and the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students. For more information, contact Terri Johnson at 615-898-5989 or trjohnso@mtsu.edu.


--30--

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. Recently, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.