Mayor Martin Walsh hosts free salary negotiation workshops

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, in collaboration with the Office of Women’s Advancement, announced Sunday a week of free salary negotiation workshops, which will be hosted around the city in honor of Equal Pay Day, according to a Sunday press release.

In September 2015, Walsh partnered with the American Association of University Women in a pledge to train 85,000 women. This “workshop blitz” will help achieve this goal early, according to the release.

Megan Costello, executive director of the Office of Women’s Advancement, said the office always hosts an event on Equal Pay Day, but Tuesday’s affair will look a bit different this year.

“The mayor often talks about, with it being 2016, let’s stop talking about this and let’s start doing something about it,” Costello said. “So we thought a great way to honor Equal Pay Day is to actually train a really concentrated group of women with the free salary negotiation workshops.”

The workshops teach women to “evaluate, negotiate, and articulate their worth confidently in the job market. Whether striving for a promotion, asking for a raise, or negotiating a new salary, attendees will learn how to conduct objective research to establish an equitable target salary,” according to AAUW’s website.

Women in Boston ages 25 to 44 have a higher education attainment than men of the same age. Yet among those who worked full-time and year-round, the 2015 median income was $60,792 for males and $51,925 for females, according to a Boston Redevelopment Authority report from December 2015.

“The wage gap is very complex, and we’re doing this for a variety of reasons,” Costello said. “One of the reasons that it exists is that women don’t ask as much as men. So we wanted to provide these workshops as a complement to the work we’re doing with employers and the work we’re doing with legislation, because we know that women need some concrete skills and tools to take to the negotiation table.”

Costello described the approach as “multi-pronged” and “unique to Boston,” which will make an impact on the attitude surrounding employment in the city.

The workshops will be hosted around the city at Suffolk University, the East Boston Public Library and Boston University, according to the release.

Several Boston residents responded positively to the announcement of the workshops.

Tina Chen, 32, of Allston, said the workshops will bring awareness to wage inequality and are an opportunity to teach women negotiating skills.

“I don’t know whether it’s enough, but it’s a good first step,” she said. “At least make women aware of this. I read an article that said women negotiate less, so maybe that’s a reason to raise women’s awareness of it and teach them some skills to negotiate.”

Nicole Martin, 36, of Fenway, agreed that working to close the wage gap is a necessary step for equality.

“There is no reason why men and women should be getting paid differently for doing the same-quality work, so I think it’s great that the city is showing effort into making the change,” she said. “I think these workshops prove that they’re not just talking about the wage gap, but they’re actually doing something about it.”

Alexa Tom, 22, of South Boston, said awareness is a good first step in the process.

“I think it’s a great idea to not only make women more aware of the wage gap,” she said, “but that the mayor is providing free services to assist women in the workplace to build up the confidence to work with their managers to get the pay they deserve.”