Worcester Business Journal

16 Worcester Business Journal | December 15, 2025 | wbjournal.com FletcherTilton.com WORCESTER | BOSTON | FRAMINGHAM | CAPE COD | PROVIDENCE Joseph T. Bartulis, Esq. jbartulis@fletchertilton.com Smooth Sailing in the Workplace Means Navigating the Winds of Change. Time advances. Change happens. Thinking shifts. Which is why, not surprising, the work environment is always a work in progress. Our labor and employment attorneys can help with all aspects of the employee life cycle from pre-employment through separation — including: onboarding; classifying employees; drafting employment agreements, severance agreements, restrictive covenant agreements or employer policies and handbooks; documenting employee performance; advising on pay practice compliance and personnel file maintenance; avoiding employment related litigation and defending employers who find themselves in employment litigation and more. WOMEN RISING TOGETHER S u p p o r t i n g W o m en f o r Y E A R S L 16 D R E S S F O R S U C C E S S W O R C E S T E R Thank You for Empowering Women Presenting Sponsor Media Sponsor Courageous Sponsors Cornerstone Bank Country bank David Clark Company Insurance Marketing agencies Dynamic Sponsors Berkshire Bank Central One Federal Credit Union Cutler Management Fidelity Bank Fletcher tilton Fontaine Community Foundation National Grid Rockland Trust Staples, Inc Webster Five. Bold Sponsors All One Credit Union Oasis Wealth Advisors Southbridge Credit Union WooSox Foundation Bank Hometown Millbury Federal Credit Union North Brookfield Savings Bank Peppers Artful Events selections Boutique The Training Associates Treeful Damaso Aniceto, CPA Vibrant Sponsors Donate now to ignite her career and transform her future. F O C U S W O R K F O R C E D E V E L O P M E N T Continued from previous page according to the Massachusetts Exec- utive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and TJX's annual report. BJ's has 347 employees in Massachu- setts on SNAP, according to the Globe. e company no longer discloses its employee counts, but its last response to the WBJ Research Department in 2021 said BJ's had 2,000 employees in Central Massachusetts and 4,800 state- wide. e company employs 33,000 part-time and full-time employees worldwide, according to its 2024 annu- al report. e Central Massachusetts employ- er with the highest number of SNAP recipients in the state is Worcester hospital UMass Memorial Medical Center's medical staff services, at 660, according to the Globe. Relying on women, people of color Worcester County has an 11% SNAP recipiency rate, falling in the middle of the state where recipiency rates peak in Hampden County with 19.0% and trough with Middlesex County at 6.7%, according to the UMass Amherst report. Across the state, women dispropor- tionately rely on SNAP, as 12% of work- ing women are beneficiaries as opposed to 9.5% of working men. Women are more likely to be in single-parent households than men, said Meyers. Single mothers represent 80% of single-parent family groups, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. "With gender roles in our society, it's likely for women to leave the workforce at higher rates than for men, which could upset their career trajectory or pause their career trajectory," said Meyers. Additionally, the vast majority of low-wage, part-time workers are wom- en, and specifically women of color, said Chilton. e National Women's Law Center reports 45.2% of Black women and 41.6% of Latinas working part-time have incomes below 200% of the feder- al poverty level, as opposed to 20.1% of white women. At TJX, 77% of its global workforce is made up of women and 60% of its U.S. workforce is people of color, ac- cording to the company's Inclusion & Diversity webpage. Additionally, women are more likely to serve in jobs requiring them to show up in person, according to the NWLC. Women make up most of the country's care economy, said Chilton. "ey tend to be the greeters. e ones who are the friendly ones, the ones that provide care to the public," she said. "They want to keep people in very precarious positions so they can kind of control who does what." Mariana Chilton, professor of practice at the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences None of BJ's employees are unionized, as the wholesale retailer sees unions as possible threats to its business operations. W PHOTO | WBJ FILE

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