SANDY, Utah - The battle to close the gender wage gap is a problem across the nation.
According to the 2010 US Census, Utah ranks fourth for the largest pay discrepancy between men and women, with women getting the short end.
On Tuesday, local high school students worked to raise awareness of the issue, through a bake sale.
Kari Schott, president of Jordan High School's Young Democrats Club, has yet to enter the workforce. But already she's working to raise awareness of the pay gap between men and women.
“It's not fair that just because I was born a woman I only get paid 77 cents,” Schott said. “This is an issue and I thought might as well start raising awareness starting young.”
On Tuesday her club sold cookies, with one catch.
“For every dollar a man makes a woman makes only 77 cents so we're having the cookies be a dollar for a man and only 77 cents for a woman,” Schott said.
Students bought the sweets to show their support.
“I hope to see that everybody gets paid the same like even men, women, different races -- that we all get paid the same and equal because we're all humans,” said Alex Call a junior at Jordan High School.
But some debated the statistics.
“I think they have a good cause and I like that they're motivated by what they believe in but I'm not entirely sure that they understand the statistics that they're throwing around,” said Jake Canaphus, a junior at Jordan High School.
Some students argue it doesn't make sense to fight wage discrimination with price discrimination but those manning the booth say this is getting their point across.
“It was definitely scary to do to be in front of my fellow students especially when there were people coming around telling me that I'm stupid saying they're bad ideas. It’s scary but I'm proud as a club we are doing this,” Schott said.
“The students are bringing issues of awareness in the school to issues that affect our society as a whole that some kids most of the kids in our school aren't aware of -- it's great some proactive students are bringing it to their attention,” said Tom Sherwood, Principal at Jordan High School.
