Middle Tennessee State University will spend Tuesday, April 9, reminding the public that women still do not receive equal pay for equal work.

MTSU will observe Equal Pay Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with information booths at the Keathley University Center and the Student Union Building.

“American women early only 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns,” said Dr. Ayne Cantrell, communications officer of the Murfreesboro branch of the American Association of University Women and a former MTSU professor.

“In Tennessee, women earn 27 percent less than men, despite having the same educational background,” Cantrell added. “Even when women earn college degrees and hold comparable jobs to men, that does not guarantee pay equity.”

Cantrell cited statistics from the National Committee on Pay Equity, a coalition of organizations and individuals working to eliminate sex- and race-based wage discrimination and to achieve pay equity, according to www.pay-equity.org.

Equal Pay Day will take place on April 9 across the country to indicate how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year.

Supporters of pay equity for women will wear red on Equal Pay Day because women are “in the red” when it comes to wages.

This June will mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy signing the Equal Pay Act into law. The measure prohibits paying female employees less than male employees with the same job, skill level, task and responsibility.

In addition to the AAUW, Equal Pay Day at MTSU is supported by the Women’s Studies Program, the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students, Women in Science and Technology and the MTSU President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

For more information, contact Cantrell at 615-893-1786 or acantrell@comcast.net or Dr. Samantha Cantrell, chair of the president’s commission, at 615-494-8751 or samantha.cantrell@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)