Highlights Commitment to Engage Directly with Private Employers Across the State

SHREWSBURY, MA — State Treasurer Deb Goldberg and her statewide Advisory Committee on Wage Equality will host a panel discussion this afternoon at the UMass Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine campus. They will collaborate with business and thought leaders from across the Greater Worcester region to explore and develop best practices to close the wage gap.

“Wage equality is a business imperative critical to the economic stability of our state,” said Treasurer Deb Goldberg. “These regional roundtables will help develop strategies for eliminating the wage gap across public and private sectors.”

Today’s discussion will be the third in a series of five regional roundtables where the Treasurer and her Advisory Committee solicit input on closing the wage gap from business leaders, academics, and employees. The Committee will then use this data to develop a wage equality toolkit for businesses and organizations.

The panel will include Kristin Lewis, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy at Tufts Health Plan, Paul Matthews, Executive Director of the 495/MetroWest Partnership, Joyce A. Murphy, Executive Vice Chancellor of Commonwealth Medicine, UMass Medical School, Maeghan Silverberg, Chief of Staff of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Steve Tolman, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and Reverend Liz Walker, Pastor of the Roxbury Presbyterian Church.

“Wage equity in Massachusetts is an issue we should all take seriously,” said Murphy, the Executive Vice Chancellor of Commonwealth Medicine. “The Commonwealth’s fiscal strength is rooted in its wage earners, and closing the wage gap is crucial for economic vitality.”

In March Treasurer Goldberg announced the creation of a new statewide Advisory Committee on Wage Equality, focused on helping both government agencies and private employers to review their pay structure and put a clearer focus on pay equity in hiring decisions and salary offers. Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, a leader on wage equality through his Women’s Workforce Council, serves as the honorary chair of the committee.

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