Post from Community: Women’s leadership collaborative to host salary negotiation workshops | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Tempo Milwaukee
March 2, 2020
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Milwaukee’s Women’s Leadership Collaborative (WLC) said today it will take on gender pay equity by putting tools in working women’s hands to help them advocate for themselves.
The group will hold “A Day for Pay Equity” on Thursday, April 2, 2020. WLC is bringing the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) proven two-hour salary negotiation workshop to 20 Milwaukee-area locations, with the goal of training 1,000 women that day. The workshops are free, however a donation to support the WLC’s efforts is suggested.
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AAUW’s WorkSmart is designed for women negotiating for a new job, raise, promotion or better benefits. Attendees will learn about the wage gap, how to identify and articulate their personal value, how to conduct objective market research to benchmark a target salary and benefits, and strategies for making the ask. Select sites will offer StartSmart, which is designed specifically for college women who are approaching the job market. The WLC program aligns with AAUW’s pledge to train 10 million women in salary negotiation by 2022.
“On average, Wisconsin women employed full time lose a combined total of nearly $14 billion every year due to the wage gap. Current projections show Wisconsin’s pay gap won’t close until 2067,” said Jennifer Dirks, President & CEO of TEMPO Milwaukee. “That may sound insurmountable, but there’s much both individual women and organizational leaders can do to shorten, and ultimately, close that gap.”
WLC is coordinating with local businesses, professional associations and nonprofit organizations to host the 20 workshops. Current workshop hosts include Alverno College, the AAUW Milwaukee and West Suburban Milwaukee branches, Cardinal Stritch University, Carthage College, Junior League of Milwaukee, ManpowerGroup, Marquette University, MATC, Milwaukee Women inc & Woman’s Club of Wisconsin, MRA, MSOE, Mueller Communications, Professional Dimensions & YWCA Southeast Wisconsin, TEMPO Milwaukee, TEMPO Racine & University of Wisconsin-Parkside, TEMPO Waukesha, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin Women in Government, and Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee.
Johannah Karstedt St. John, CEO of Professional Dimensions, noted that given Wisconsin’s well-documented pay equity gap – where the average woman makes 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man, and the wage gap widens considerably for women of color – “gaining skills to negotiate their salaries and benefits is something women can do right now for better economic security.”
Lead sponsors for the April 2 event are the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, AAUW Milwaukee branch and the three organizations that comprise the Women’s Leadership Collaborative: Milwaukee Women inc, Professional Dimensions and TEMPO Milwaukee. Additional sponsorship opportunities remain.
“The Women’s Leadership Collaborative believes it’s critically important that we not only build awareness for issues affecting women, but provide education, information and resources that will help to drive real change in the lives of individual women, the organizations we lead, and our communities,” added Jackie Mortenson, Director of Services for Milwaukee Women inc.
For more information or to register for a workshop, please visit: www.wlcmke.com/april-2.
About Women’s Leadership Collaborative (WLC)
Established in April 2019, the Women’s Leadership Collaborative (WLC) is a collective of professional women focused on achieving equity. The WLC is focusing on pay equity as its first major issue. The collaborative, inclusive of Milwaukee Women inc, Professional Dimensions and TEMPO Milwaukee represents the strongest collective of professional women ever formed in Milwaukee. For more information visit www.wlcmke.com.