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On Equal Pay Day, Women Note Gender Gap In Salaries

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A few hundred people turned out in Daley Plaza on Tuesday to mark Equal Pay Day.

Advocates at the Equal Pay Day rally said women generally had to work all of last year and until April 17 of this year, in order to make the same amount of money a man earned for the same work in 2011.

Mary Lou Lowrey, 65, was at the demonstration with her daughter and 7-month-old granddaughter.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports

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Lowrey said, when she first entered the workforce as a librarian 35 years ago, she was shocked when she learned she would only be paid so much -- because her employer knew her husband was an attorney and was already bringing in a salary for the family.

"And I don't know that we've traveled much further than that. I'm here with my daughter and grandchild. We're three generations that are speaking out," she said. "I hope this situation is corrected by the time my granddaughter is entering the workforce."

Lowrey says she hopes she lives to see it.

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