Lifting up working people is at the core of who Marty is. Before becoming mayor, Marty served as the head of the Building Trades unions and created Building Pathways, a groundbreaking program to get low-income women and people of color into good careers. As mayor, he created the City’s first Office of Workforce Development and charged it with innovating new strategies to get workers the skills and jobs they need to get ahead. As a result, thousands of low-wage workers have gained access to better wages and career paths. In the process, Boston has become a national leader in the vital field of workforce development.

Marty’s Record

  • Sharing Boston’s growth with workers in need. Since 2014, Marty directed commercial development fees to the Neighborhood Jobs Trust and Community Benefits, totaling $10.86 million and serving over 2,600 low-income Boston residents through various job training programs in a number of high-growth sectors. On average, over 85% of program participants successfully completed the training programs and over 60% of them received a job with demonstrated career paths and an average wage of over $16/hour.
  • Helping grow workers’ wages. Under Mayor Walsh, Boston created job centers where job seekers could develop resume-writing, networking, interviewing, and job searching skills. Together, these centers served 15,661 job seekers and 380 employers in Fiscal Year 2016.
  • Protecting workers’ rights. His first year in office, Mayor Walsh signed an Executive Order requiring vendors with city contracts to certify they do not practice wage theft, which is the improper withholding of payment from employees and the failure to pay employees according to required schedules and classifications.
  • Drawing on the power of apprenticeship. Mayor Walsh’s team secured a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and leveraged an additional $13 million to get hundreds of low-income workers into union apprenticeships, combined with college credit, that will give them access to living wages and good careers in construction and hospitality. Learn more, here.
  • Closing the wealth gap. Mayor Walsh launched Boston’s Office of Financial Empowerment, offering low-wage workers free financial checkups and credit coaching. The 3,400 Boston residents served so far saw their credit scores improve by an average of 15.51 points within one year, with some residents reducing their debt by an average of $487.50 a month.

Marty’s Plan

  • Continue to foster innovative new partnerships. with employers, with nonprofits, and with labor organizations to make Boston a national leader in getting workers access to skills and opportunities.
  • Expand and upgrade youth employment. The Mayor’s workforce development team will use a new research grant to evaluate the Summer Jobs program with the goal of identifying the aspects most effective at reducing inequalities facing Boston’s low-income youth.
  • Measure outcomes in the City’s new and existing workforce programs and expand investments in those that produce results for workers.