In 2016, WomenVenture helped women launch or strengthen more than 600 businesses, producing $47.5 million in gross sales and creating or retaining more than 1,300 jobs.
Perhaps the most significant number is the median wage of more than $27 an hour that those jobs paid, WomenVenture executive director Elaine Wyatt said.
“The wages that the women are paying themselves and their employees, that’s one of the places where we feel like we really stand out in the market,” Wyatt said. “Our goal for every woman that comes to us — no matter what her business idea, her education or her income level — is that whatever business that she creates really is going to pay her a living wage.”