Nationally, nearly 15% of managers and executives at companies with at least 100 employees are either black or Hispanic. But in Milwaukee, the figure is closer to 8%.
In raw numbers, there are more than 40,000 people in those top positions in metro Milwaukee, only about 3,500 are either black or Hispanic.
The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce hopes to change those data points in the coming years.
MMAC has been researching racial disparities in the region over the last eight months and will likely unveil a strategic effort in September aimed at increasing the number of minorities in management and executive positions, Julie Granger said Thursday at the M7 Economic Development Forum.
The effort is focused on making Milwaukee “a region of choice for diverse talent.” Granger, executive vice president of MMAC, said it “is something that is not just what we should be doing and what we could be doing but what we must be doing.”
She said the chamber regularly surveys its members and for the first time last year members listed racial disparities as the region’s top liability, prompting the research efforts.
The chamber’s initial research focused on measures of prosperity, including educational attainment, unemployment and single, female-headed households with children, home ownership and poverty rates.
Metro Milwaukee’s white population ranked sixth in comparison to 20 peer areas on those metrics. The black and Hispanic communities ranked last on those measures and the region had the largest gap between prosperity for whites and black and Hispanics, Granger said.
She said the MMAC board decided to focus on increasing the number of African Americans and Hispanics in management positions as an area where the business community could make a difference.
According to EEOC data, there were 3,437 black or Hispanic employees in the metro area in executive or management positions at companies with at least 100 employees. Those employees accounted for just 8.2% of executive or management employees as of 2017.
“That pace of change and growth has been glacial in the last couple decades,” Granger said.
In 2007, black or Hispanic employees accounted for 7% of executives and managers in the region.
Those groups account for around 25% of metro Milwaukee’s total population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
MMAC recruited 30 employers in the region to participate in a research study aimed at bolstering the number of black and Hispanic employees in executive and management positions. The organization surveyed around 1,100 employees already in those positions, conducted focus groups and held 16 one-hour, one-on-one conversations the CEOs in the region.
Moving forward, MMAC plans to work with employers to develop a measurable goal for increasing the number of black and Hispanic employees in management and executive positions, Granger said. The organization is developing strategies to help drive the increase and is also exploring a CEO accountability pledge.
“It is going to take an extremely broad base of companies to really move the needle on this issue,” Granger said. “This is not about quotas, this is about changing the culture and I think it’s going to be a journey of a thousand steps.”
