One Easy Thing You Can Do To Promote Equal Pay

Equal Pay Day, recognized this year on Tuesday, April 12, is an important day for women everywhere, as it is the one day a year when the persistent wage gap is nationally acknowledged. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has become a leading organization and voice in promoting gender equality in all aspects of life, especially when it's Equal Pay Day. Hopefully people advocate close the wage gap every day the of the year, but the annual "holiday" is as good an excuse as any to finally do something about this prevalent issues. Tweeting Congress to support fair pay is the one easy thing you can do to promote equal pay on Equal Pay Day and have your voice heard by elected officials who have the ability to make a change.

The official Equal Pay Day signifies how far into the year women would have to work just to make as much as men did in the previous year; this serves as a disappointing yet important reminder for women — especially for mothers and women of color — who make just 79 cents (or less) to a man's dollar.

There are myriad ways to celebrate Equal Pay day, but tweeting your local elected congressional officials is the one thing you can do to promote fair pay.

There is already a tweet created for you to use, but you can change the wording or add to it before you send it. All you have to do is put in your zip code and a list of your local officials in Congress will show up with their name, party affiliation, and Twitter handle. Click the "send now" button, and you will be redirected to Twitter to send the automated tweet to the Congress official of your choice.

The nice thing about this is that you can enter different zip codes to spread the message outside your local area, too. You could also choose to include all of your local congressional officials' Twitter handles in one tweet, or you could send out an individual tweet to each one to maximize your audience.

The automated tweet already includes the hashtag #FairPay, but adding #EqualPayDay to your tweet to Congress will be even more effective; not only will you reach your local elected officials' network, but you'll reach a whole lot more people, too.

Image: Caroline Wurtzel/Bustle