Wauwatosa Signs Metropolitan Milwaukee Association Of Commerce Pledge To 'Make Milwaukee A Region Of Choice' For Diverse Talent

Press release from the City of Wauwatosa:

July 16, 2020

The City of Wauwatosa signed the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC)'s pledge to "Make Milwaukee a Region of Choice." As part of this pledge, the city is to increase diverse management by 25% and diverse employment by 15% by 2025. Wauwatosa will be the first municipality in the State of Wisconsin to join this effort.

Right now, only 4% of all City of Wauwatosa employees are African American, and only 3% are Latino/Hispanic.

MMAC Chairman Jonas Prising submitted a letter of support to Wauwatosa's pledge, adding, "When [metro] Milwaukee’s companies and community make an intentional effort to ensure that their doors are open to everyone, more of our young people will want to build a career here and more talented employees will want to move here.”

By signing the pledge, the City commits to providing a dynamic and supportive workplace for all of our employees to foster their growth, success and well-being. As a partner in the pledge, we will commit to the following for the calendar years 2020 – 2025:

• Report the City’s base line employment data for African American and Latino/Hispanic employees in metro Milwaukee as of January 2020 and annually thereafter:
  • Total number of employees and percentage of total that are African American or Latino/Hispanic
  • Number of management employees and percentage of management that are African American or Latino/Hispanic
  • Percentage change over previous year for all categories
• Designate a representative to participate in semi-annual best practice sharing with peers and provide ongoing insight/oversight into ROC strategies and execution
• Agreement by City Administrator to participate in an annual review of strategies and confirmation of continued participation in pledge
• Be recognized publicly as a participant in the Region of Choice initiative
• Willingness to promote this pledge and help recruit other corporate and/or community leaders

This press release was produced by the City of Wauwatosa. The views expressed here are the author’s own.