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Women gather in Missoula to discuss how to advocate for equal pay

Posted at 10:52 AM, Mar 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-10 12:52:09-04

MISSOULA – The American Association of University Women group held a presentation at the University of Montana on Saturday to discuss ways that both women and men can advocate to receive equal and fair pay in the workplace.

The presentation helped coach participants on how to negotiate for better contracts before taking a job and also promoted a new program from the AAUW.

The organization hopes to have 100,000 people participate in an online free tutorial before August that will help evaluate whether or not they are being paid enough in your current position.

AAUW Equal Pay UM
The presentation helped coach participants on how to negotiate for better contracts before taking a job. (MTN News photo)

The program will also coach participants on how to negotiate for more fair pay, much like the instructors did today on campus.

“White women throughout their lifetime will lose about $400,000 as a result of the wage gap and if we could eliminate that imagine 400,000 going back into the community and into families,” said AAUW Start Facilitator Christina Roberts.

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in 2017 if women were to receive equal pay the US would have seen $512.6 billion more income.

This was the event’s sixth year and AAUW plans to host more of these presentations at all six of the college campuses across the state that are partnered with the group.