'Equal Pay Day' Raises Awareness For Wage Discrimination Against Women

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Some businesses are offering 20 percent discounts Tuesday in honor of "Equal Pay Day," an observance raising awareness for wage discrimination against women.

That 20 percent is considered the amount of extra work women would have to do to match the salary of their male counterparts. Women made about 80 cents for every dollar men earned in 2015, according to U.S. government data.

Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook Inc. and founder of the non-profit Lean In, launched a new campaign Tuesday: #20PercentCounts, representing the 20 percent less that women make compared with men. Companies big and small are offering discounts, rebates or donating money to women's organizations.

Ride-share company Lyft is observing the day by donating 20 percent of their profits to women's charities.

Equal Pay Day was created 21 years ago by the National Committee on Pay Equity. It is held in April to symbolize how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.

Lean In says that at the current rate, it will take another 44 years for women to reach equal pay in the U.S. And It will take even longer for women in other parts of the world: 47 years for women in Western Europe, 111 years for women in East Asia and the Pacific and 356 years for women in the Middle East and North Africa.

Activists are also holding rallies around the country.

You can check the website LeanIn.org to see which businesses are participating.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)