April 17 is Equal Pay Day, the day many women will wear red to symbolize their income is in the red—and how far into 2012 they must work to match what men earned in 2011 for equal jobs. This year women can complement their red wardrobes with a smart new lipstick to help plump their purses—not their lips.

Jane Hight McMurry, leadership success expert and resource for frustrated women, shares the new lipstick formula in a book, Navigating the Lipstick Jungle: Go from Plain Jane to Getting What You Want, Need, and Deserve! (Stellar Publishing, April 2012) because women attending her “Lipstick” programs begged for a written guide to help them change the Bureau of Labor Statistics finding that women as a whole earn $.77 for every dollar men earn despite equal education, technical skills and laws that ensure equal rights and opportunities.

Women currently run only 17 companies listed in the S&P 500. Fewer than 4% of Fortune 1000 CEOs are women. Women exiting college earn on average 17% less than male counterparts.

“Uninformed women making up these statistics are like unlit dynamite,” according to McMurry. “Their power is within but nothing happens until their fuse is lit.”

The fuse remains unlit for most women. AAUW.org reports a direct correlation between age and the gender pay gap. The older the worker, the wider the wage gap. Wageindicator.org reports increases to 19% after ten years in the workplace. Women over 50 earn 73% of what men their age earn.

McMurry lights the fuse and fills the gap in a woman’s arsenal informing her of what she needs beyond education and technical skills so she can get what she wants, needs, and deserves in the corporate jungle.

Dorothy Clark, M.D., Member American Society of Plastic Surgeons says what McMurry offers is, “A million dollar make-over costing pennies.” As a woman’s makeup case contains more than lipstick, McMurry’s safari to success contains multiple tools to show women step-by-step how to get what they want including phrases to get the salaries they deserve.

McMurry’s favorite tip is from her mother, “The meek might inherit the earth, but it’s not going to be in your lifetime.” You can’t be shy. You must ask.

Visit www.navigatingthelipstickjungle.com to ask questions, get answers, register for free tips.