Seton Hill students plan Equal Pay Day rally

Seton Hill University students will demonstrate in Greensburg next week to mark Equal Pay Day.

The university’s Feminist Collective and Griffins for Human Rights are sponsoring a rally at Courthouse Square from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday. The annual event is held to draw attention to pay disparities between men and women.

President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963 requiring women be paid the same as men for equal work. At that time, women earned 63 cents for every dollar earned by men.

Census figures from 2017 showed U.S. women earned 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by men. Some experts dispute the use of such figures, arguing that women tend to gravitate toward lower paying occupations.

Every year since 1996, groups across the country have held Equal Pay Day observances to mark how far into the next year the average woman must work to collect the same pay the average male earned the prior year.

Scheduled to speak at the Greensburg rally are Debra Mason, Director of the Wukich Center for Entrepreneurial Opportunities and Diversity Officer at Seton Hill University, and Aryanna Berringer, a military veteran, businesswoman, author and social activist from Murrysville.