It's no secret that more than 50 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, women are still paid significantly less than men.

The White House reported this past spring that full-time working women earn 77% of what their male counterparts earn on average.

In order to protest that gender wage gap, a handful of businesses have recently offered women a discount that reflects the depressing statistic. Men, on the other hand, pay full price.

The intention of the protest isn’t to try to get even, the owners say. Rather, the goal is is to get people thinking about this issue in a different way: by representing the inequality with cold, hard cash.

Meet some of the businesses leading the effort.

M’Lady Records — Portland, Oregon

Last week, M’Lady's Records in Portland, Oregon, decided to start charging women 77% of the full price for all mail orders.

The company announced the new policy in a Facebook post.

starting this Saturday when it turns midnight, until we can't anymore (read: not any time soon)ALL MAILORDER placed by... Posted by M'lady's Records on Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Being that the company is a small label that doesn’t hire publicists, co-owner Brett Lyman didn’t believe anything would come out of it.

He was wrong.

“Now I'm bombarded with hate mail from insane dudes and righteous support emails from women and men that believe that fair play is not a bad governing principle in society,” he told Mashable.

Lyman sees this as a perfect time to take action on the gender pay gap issue.

“The recent leaps we've seen in progressive attitudes toward issues to do with identity and acceptance for being yourself are really heartening,” he wrote. “I just wish that workers' rights were also at the fore of this current discussion. Workers' right have been chipped away at ever since major gains were made almost a hundred years ago, and the wage gap (to my mind) is one of the primary issues that needs closer scrutiny immediately, like yesterday," he said.

Less Than 100 — Pittsburgh, PA

In April, a graphic designer opened up a pop-up boutique, 76 <100 in Pittsburgh. The motto of the shop is "pay what you are paid." For the month of April, women paid 76% of the full price, representing the gender pay gap in Pennsylvania. “I think everyone is aware of this issue but it’s really powerful with actual money,” said Elana Schlenker.

Being a graphic designer, Schlenker was able to bring over 40 artists together to sell their products at the pop-up.

It's our LAST DAY here in #pittsburgh! We're here until 7pm and then gone! Be sure to drop in. pic.twitter.com/sn3wi6GCeG — Less Than 100 (@LessThan100Shop) April 30, 2015

She told Mashable that she was always interested in the gender pay gap issue, but decided to get involved after reading a 1960s manifest about a shop that charged women $1 and men $2 to reflect the inequality. “The idea made a lot of sense given the fact that women still earn less than men today.”

Schlenker said that the shop got more attention than she could’ve dreamed, and men were surprisingly receptive to the idea. “A lot of guys read about it and believe in what we were doing and came to check it out,” she said. “People got the joke that it wasn’t about punishing men.”

Schlenker also organized a number of events at the store to enable women to advocate for themselves in the workforce, including a small business-owner panel and an inter-generational story swap. She plans to open pop-up shops in other locations as well. She’s opening up a shop in New Orleans for the month of November, and plans to open shops in Indianapolis, Brooklyn and San Francisco in the future. Her idea inspired someone across the globe as well. A woman in Sydney, Australia reached out to her about opening a pop-up shop herself. “It’s awesome and sad because it’s like ‘wow, this is really an issue everywhere,” Schlenker said.

The Way Station & 706 Bar — Brooklyn, NY

On the night of July 7th — 7/7 — two bars in Brooklyn charged women 77% of their bill. Owner of The Way Station bar, Andy Heidel, was inspired to do something for his female customers when he read the White House report that revealed the gender pay gap. “I wanted to treat my female customers fairly and try to stand up for them, respect them and show them we care,” he said. He decided to choose a date that reflected the gender pay gap statistic.

A bar across the street, 706 bar, agreed to collaborate with them for the night so that everyone would get served. “Anything to draw a little attention to it and to make somebody think,” said Derek Wybourn, owner of the bar. Heidel said that while 80% of the customers that night were women, the men who showed up were supportive. “Women were buying drinks for the guys,” Heidel said.

My neighbors @706bar are joining the cause pic.twitter.com/HHp4DAgVGZ — The Way Station (@waystationbk) July 7, 2015

The intention of the promotion is not to be confused with a ladies night.

“It’s more of a women’s empowerment night than a ladies night,” Heidel said. “Ladies night is used to attract more men and to get women drunk and make poor decisions. That isn’t something I believe in.”

Heidel would like to do this event once a year. He hopes that next year the date will represent a smaller gender pay gap . “Hopefully next year this will be on 8/5,” he said.