Interactive Equity and Inclusion Dashboard

We celebrate the diversity of our organization and remain committed to affirmative actions, policies, procedures and attitudes necessary to continue to build and retain a workforce that is representative of the people we are here to serve.

• We have created this dashboard based on data produced from the City’s PeopleSoft HR system—the same data used internally.
• Our dashboard does not include school department data.
• There are eight EEO-4 classifications that all City jobs are organized under.
• This dashboard is based on budgeted base wage data. It does not account for overtime, shift differentials, educational stipends, or other types of additional payments. 
• The salary data depicted by this dashboard are not inflation-adjusted. To compare salaries from year to year, please consider adjusting wage numbers using the United States Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Boston-area Consumer Price Index.
• The data also includes employees who have chosen not to specify their race and/or ethnicity – Not Specified.  Although the City highly encourages its employees to voluntarily self-identify at any point in their employment, it cannot require that employees do so.
• Some trends depicted on the dashboard may not be statistically significant.
• The data depicted in the latest year available in the historical Equity and Inclusion Dashboard may not always match the data for the same year in the current snapshot Equity and Inclusion Dashboard. The City updates the historical dashboard annually based on data from June 30th of each year, but updates the current snapshot dashboard more often. Please refer to the current snapshot dashboard for the latest data and the historical dashboard to explore trends over time.

Each job title is placed in job groups according to job content, wage rates, and opportunity for advancement. The eight categories specific to local, state and federal organizations are:

1. Official/Administrator: Officials and Administrators set broad policies, exercise overall responsibility for execution of these policies, or direct individual departments or sub-divisions to carry out policy and procedure. Included in this category are Deputy Directors, Commissioners and Department Heads.
2. Professional: Occupations requiring specialized and theoretical knowledge usually acquired through college training, work experience or other training that provides comparable knowledge. Included in this category are personnel and labor relation positions, lawyers, systems analysts, accountants, engineers, police and fire lieutenants, librarians, management information system workers and youth program managers.
3. Technical: Occupations that require a combination of basic scientific or technical knowledge and manual skill obtained through specialized post-secondary school education or through equivalent on-the-job training.  This category includes computer programmers, drafters, survey and mapping technicians, highway technicians, police and fire sergeants, inspectors, personnel analyst, assessment analyst, traffic coordinator, financial services manager, plumbing and gas inspectors, appraisal technician, budget analyst.
4. Protective Services (Sworn): Occupations in which workers are entrusted with public safety, security and protection from destructive forces. In addition to police patrol officers and fire fighters, this category includes emergency communications personnel, animal control officers, assistant hackney inspector, assistant license inspector, parking control officer, fire alarm operator.
5. Paraprofessional: Occupations in which workers perform some of the duties of a professional or technician in a supportive role, usually requiring less formal training and/or experience normally required for professional or technical status. The category includes research assistants, childcare workers, recreation assistants, and library assistants.
6. Administrative Support: Occupations in which workers are responsible for internal and external communication, recording and retrieval of data and/or information and other paperwork required in an office. This includes bookkeepers, clerk-typists, statistical clerks, dispatchers, payroll clerks, computer operators, telephone operators, legal assistants and cashiers.
7. Skilled Craft: Occupations in which workers perform jobs requiring special manual skill and a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the processes involved in the work which is acquired through on the job training and experience or through apprenticeship or other formal training programs. This category includes mechanics, repairers, electricians, heavy equipment operators, carpenters, water and sewage treatment plant operators.
8. Service Maintenance: Occupations in which workers perform duties resulting in or contributing to the comfort, convenience, hygiene or safety of the general public or which contribute to the upkeep and care of buildings, facilities or grounds of public property. Employees in this category may operate machinery and it includes truck drivers, bus drivers, garage laborers, custodial employees, gardeners and groundskeepers, refuse collectors and construction laborers.

This brief video tutorial explains how to use filters on the Equity and Inclusion Dashboard.

When assessing pay equity, it is important to analyze benefits-eligible and non-eligible employees separately. Cambridge's Employee Demographic dashboard illustrates demographic and pay trends across the entire municipal workforce. However, Cambridge’s municipal workforce is actually a combination of two different workforce groups:

• Benefits-Eligible Staff: regular employees who work at least 20 hours per week. This group includes most administrators, police officers, inspectors, etc. These employees are paid year-round.
• Non-Benefits-Eligible Staff: temporary or part time employees who work less than 20 hours per week, as well as seasonal employees. This group includes lifeguards, youth workers, and election poll workers. Due to their seasonality and/or work schedule, non-benefits-eligible staff tend to have much lower annual salaries than benefits-eligible staff.

Pay rates across demographics are very similar within each of these workforce groups. For example, benefits-eligible men and women tend to make similar salaries, as do non-benefits-eligible men and women. However, these workforce groups differ in terms of demographics. Examining both groups as a single entity could lead to the appearance of pay disparities across demographics, when disparities are in fact driven by benefit-eligibility.

To perform a controlled analysis, we suggest looking at pay equity across each of these two workforce groups rather than across the workforce as a whole. Test it out for yourself by clicking on the “Eligible” or “Not Eligible” checkboxes in the upper right corner of the dashboard. You can also use our Pay Equity Comparison Tool (Beta).

Cambridge is ethnically diverse and rich in culture. 66.6% of all residents are White; 11.7% are Black; 15.1% are Asian; and 6.6% are other races. 7.4% of all residents are of Hispanic background (Source: 2010 US Bureau of Census). With an approximate population of 105,162, Cambridge is the seventh most densely populated city in the U.S. of cities with a population over 75,000, comprising 6.26 square miles.

According to the 2011 - 2015 American Community Survey, median family income totaled $104,454, in inflation adjusted dollars, up from $84,557 in 1999 and $73,831 in 1989. This represents an increase of 23.5% from 1999 and 41.5% from 1989 in inflation adjusted dollars.

The 2011 - 2015 American Community Survey indicates that the state median family income was $87,085 and the national median income was $66,011.

Cambridge median household incomes rose from $68,273 in 1999 to $79,416 in 2011 - 2015 in inflation adjusted dollars, a 16.3% increase. In 1989, median household income stood at $61,184 in inflation adjusted dollars, indicating an increase of 29.8%.

The 2011 - 2015 American Community Survey indicates that the state median household was $68,563 and the national median household income was $53,889.

All figures adjusted to the 2015 level using the change in the Research Series Consumer Price Index for all urban wage earners (CPI-U-RS).

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development estimates that the 2016 Metropolitan Boston area median income for a family of four is $98,100 per year.

To explore additional demographic data about Cambridge, view the Demographics and Statistics FAQs compiled by the Community Development Department.

The City of Cambridge re-affirms its commitment to the principles of affirmative action, non-discrimination and equal employment opportunity. It is our firm belief that any employment decision, policy or program, regardless of intent, which through its design, implementation or impact limits the full utilization of qualified individuals, injures the City of Cambridge. It is the policy of the City not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment in the terms, conditions, and benefits of employment because of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, Vietnam era veteran status, age or disability. The City's personnel policies and practices are designed to provide equal opportunity for all persons. All employment decisions and actions will be made without preference based on the aforementioned characteristics.

A policy of non-discrimination by itself, however, is not sufficient to erase the effects of past employment practices. In addition to vigilance over activities aimed at the elimination of discriminatory barriers to employment, the City of Cambridge undertakes positive measures (affirmative action) to ensure equal opportunity to members of protected classes, minorities, women, people with disabilities and Vietnam era veterans. The goal is to achieve the equitable participation of minorities, women, people with disabilities and Vietnam era veterans in all City departments and at all job levels.

Each City department has the responsibility to undertake affirmative action and promote the full realization of such through outreach and recruitment of under-utilized protected classes. The City has and will continue to take affirmative steps to train and promote employees to improve their opportunities to participate in higher level employment with emphasis in job classifications where members of protected classes are under-utilized and under-represented.

We celebrate the diversity of our organization and remain committed to affirmative actions, policies, procedures and attitudes necessary to continue to build and retain a workforce that is representative of the people we are here to serve.

Download the City of Cambridge Affirmative Action Plan (PDF)