Why Boston plans to offer free salary negotiation classes for women
The city of Boston is teaming up with American Association of University Women to offer two-hour classes that would provide strategies for women advancing in the workplace. The first lesson: How to better negotiate salaries.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and the Office of Women’s Advancement have said they support legislation that would end the gender wage gap, but officials said they see gender workplace issues as more complex than that.
“The questions for us were really: How do we change the culture?’’ said Megan Costello, the executive director of the Office of Women’s Advancement. “How do we really shift what women are experiencing in their work environments from an employer perspective and also from an individual perspective?’’
Women working full-time make 79 percent of the earnings of men in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Census. Massachusetts employees fare just a bit better than that, as women make 82 percent of the earnings of men here.
The idea of the classes is to get women to “know your value,’’ Costello said. Data has shown that, in Costello’s words, women “totally underestimate their value within an organization and lowball themselves.’’
By spreading the program out around the city and in different languages, they plan to reach 90,000 Boston women over the next five years.
“My philosophy on this is, ‘Go big or go home,’’’ Costello said.
In comments to the Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Walsh emphasized the need to change corporate culture along with passing wage gap legislation.
“It’s 2015,’’ Walsh said [PDF]. “It’s time we do more than talk about this issue. It’s time to take human capital in our city to a new level.’’
Gallery: Women’s rights leaders from Massachusetts.
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