Most college students scrounge for money through the pillows of the couch or by working extra jobs. The idea of earning a higher paycheck at a professional job acts as motivation to earning a degree for some students.

Women earn about 77 cents compared to every one dollar men earn in identical professional careers, according to Shannon Johnson, director of the Women’s Center.

As a way to raise awareness of the gender issue of inequality, the Women’s Center is holding a bake sale today, after being postponed Thursday, in the Brickyard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Along with the Women’s Center, a group of students participating in the Alternative Spring Break to Guatemala is using the bake sale as a fundraiser.

The baked goods will be sold for 75 cents for females and one dollar for males, according to Johnson.

“It’s an opportunity to educate members of the team going on the trip as well as the larger campus community,” Johnson said.

Ellen Orabone, a freshman in food science, is planning to participate on the ASB trip.

Along with being a fundraiser, Orabone said “the whole point of the bake sale is to inform students about inequality of wages in the workplace between men and women.”

Other female students were surprised to hear about the continuing inequality issue between genders in today’s work force.

“We are one of the first generations of women to actually go to college and have a career,” Michaela Bennett, a freshman in food science, said.

Bennett said she felt women are more independent than before, and are not actively searching for a husband to support their lifestyles.

“College women are about to go into the workforce,” said Bennett. “They need to be aware of what to look for, and make sure they are treated as an equal to men in terms of pay.”

Bennett also said she felt men “will be shocked” when they have to pay more for the same item at the bake sale.

Martin Hovis, a sophomore in First Year College, said most males do not care about the proven inequality because it does not “affect” the male population. He said he does not know why the inequality exists, but feels both genders should “get paid the same.”

“We do feel like we’ve achieved equality, but when you look at figures like this [for the bake sale], we’re not there yet,” Johnson said.

The bake sale is “a great way to have comparative perspective of these [inequality] issues,” Lauren Welch, a graduate student and advisor of the Guatemala ASB trip.

Welch said she wants to work professionally on trips similar to the Guatemala and other ASB trips.

Orabone said she once lived in Central America — the same region where she will be traveling during spring break.

“I’ve seen how differently women are treated down there,” Orabone said.

The bake sale is more than just raising awareness of the inequality in the United States, according to Johnson.

One of the main goals of the inequality bake sale is to “connect it back to the United States: to think globally and locally,” Johnson said.

Orabone said she is conscious of how the women in Guatemala might react to their visit.

“I hope they can see that we are not coming down there to impose ideas of the whole American mind-set, but that we actually want to learn from them,” Orabone said.