The Boston population has grown increasingly diverse over the past few decades, with people of color accounting for more than half of the city's current residents and Black people making up 24% of all residents. But the city's construction workforce has not kept pace, according to Boston city data.
The data also shows a kind of caste system in construction. The higher up you go in a building under construction, the less likely you are to find workers of color.
— WGBH
The Hub’s long history with racism is felt in practically every other area of the built environment in the city, including its underserved mass transit system and arcane zoning policy’s harsh afterburn. Workers on various large construction projects such as the new Winthrop Center are seeing the effects even as the industry faces labor shortages.
According to WBGH, Boston’s citywide construction workforce is 63% white, with instances of high-demand skilled roles registering at 88% and 89% white. Perhaps predictably, the data set showed some more dangerous job functions (such as asbestos removal) being staffed by upwards of 75% BIPOC laborers.
This is particularly worrisome as the city has been pushing equity mandates that require 40% BIPOC employment on all sites totaling more than 50,000 square feet. Women aren't fairing much better in the local workforce either: A fall survey of Boston's 150 biggest projects found none that met the same requirement, which calls for only 12% employment overall.
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