AUBURN - Judy McGinn and Cynthia MacBain weren't shy about approaching complete strangers. Dressed in bright red sweaters and with pen and paper in hand, they struck up conversations with men and women, asking them to sign a petition in support of passing New York state's proposed Fair Pay Act.

They had no trouble convincing Auburnian Valerie Smith.

“I'll sign it. I'm up for that,” Smith said as she walked by the Cayuga County Courthouse on Genesee Street. “Men have a lot more privileges than women do, and I think that's unfair.”

McGinn and MacBain, as well as five other members of the Skaneateles area branch of the American Association of University Women, were part of Tuesday's nationwide recognition of Equal Pay Day, an observance to raise awareness of the wage gap between men and women.

Recent statistics show that women on average earn 77 cents on the dollar to their male counterparts. Just one year after college, women working full-time earn less than their male colleagues, even if they work in the same field, according to the national AAUW. A decade after graduation, the pay gap widens.

Equal Pay Day is held in April to symbolize how far into the new year a woman must work to earn the same amount that a man earned in the previous year. It is organized by the National Committee on Pay Equity and has grown to include events sponsored by various community groups.

Members of the Skaneateles AAUW took their message to the streets of Auburn. Wearing red sweaters and fleeces to show that women are still “in the red,” they stood outside of Wegmans and the courthouse, asking both men and women to sign the petition, which will be sent to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The Fair Pay Act, which has been introduced in the Assembly and Senate, would, among other things, give women and minorities legal redress to receive fair compensation, McGinn said. The new legislation would amend the labor law because “present law does not adequately address the issue of pay equity, and the need for state enforcement of a prohibition on such inequities,” according to the Assembly's Web site.

“This is just a petition to say stop stalling,” AAUW member Patti Carey told one gentleman as he filled out his name, address and phone number.

As the AAUW representatives stopped people along Genesee Street, many of the women signing the petitions explained their own experiences and feelings about the pay disparity. There are people, however, who still believe that there isn't a problem, explained McGinn, president of the local AAUW chapter.

In the past, men were the primary breadwinners, but that's not always the case now, she said.

“Now women are so much in need of equal pay because... they're raising their children, they're alone,” McGinn said. “So many women fall under the poverty level. It's shocking, it's shocking. And it's unacceptable.”

McGinn said that equity for women in terms of equal pay for equal work has been an initiative on which the state AAUW has decided to focus.

“Women need to work for other women; they need to support other women,” McGinn said, noting that the local AAUW chapter had chosen to petition in Auburn because her branch is looking to expand.

McGinn and her peers expect to collect several hundreds signatures - not just in Auburn but also from friends and neighbors in Skaneateles - before sending their petitions off to the state leaders before the end of the legislative year.