The Seton Hill University Feminist Collective is sponsoring an Equal Pay Rally and March on Equal Pay Day to highlight the gap between the wages of women and men throughout the country.

The rally will take place on Tuesday, April 12 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in front of the Westmoreland County Courthouse, 2 North Main Street, Greensburg, Pa. Seton Hill students will march to the courthouse for the rally from the University’s campus beginning at 11:30 a.m.

Ann Emmerling, executive director of the Blackburn Center Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, will serve as speaker at the Equal Pay Rally.

Those participating in the Westmoreland rally will join thousands of people from across the United States calling for change on Equal Pay Day. April 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. On a national level, women are paid only 79 cents for every dollar a man is paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages. Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.