Here’s How Much Labor Secretary Marty Walsh Is Worth

Illustration by Forbes. Photo: US Federal Government

The former mayor of Boston has pensions, real estate and a smattering of other investments worth an estimated $2.5 million.

In his farewell message as the mayor of Boston earlier this year, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh thanked his hometown and the people who live in it: “Boston is more than my hometown, it’s my heart. It’s the city that welcomed my immigrant parents. It’s the city that helped me survive childhood cancer. It’s the city that gave me a second chance when I needed it. And it’s the city that gave me the opportunity to follow my dreams.”

It’s also the city where he holds most of his money. In the neighborhood where he grew up, Dorchester, Walsh owns $2 million of real estate, enough to make up most of his $2.5 million fortune. He bought one home in 2015 for $680,000. It has almost doubled in value since. His parents purchased the other decades ago. It’s now worth just over $1 million, and Walsh owns it. He carries mortgages on both properties.

Despite the new gig in Washington D.C. and rising home values in Boston, Walsh plans to hold on to his real estate. “A lot of people (are) sending letters to my house to buy my house,” Walsh said in a video in February posted by local newspaper the Dorchester Reporter. “We’re not selling. Just for the record.”

Inside Walsh’s Wallet

The labor secretary took office with three pensions worth more than $800,000 total, including two from a labor union he once led.

Walsh’s next largest asset also comes from Boston where he served as mayor for seven years, a government pension. It will pay him about $9,800 per month in retirement and is worth an estimated $625,000 today.

Then there are his union pensions. Walsh, a former union leader, said at his cabinet nomination hearing that his father’s membership in the Laborers Local 223 union was his family’s “way into the middle class.” Health insurance from the union made it so his parents could afford the cancer treatment he needed as a child, and later, he said those benefits allowed him go into treatment for alcoholism as an adult. Walsh now holds two pensions through labor unions, worth a combined $190,000.

The labor secretary also owns at least $400,000 in other investments, according to the financial disclosure report he filed after his cabinet nomination. The largest piece of that is his whole life insurance policy through John Hancock, worth about $300,000. Walsh also holds cash accounts and a mix of stock and bond index funds, worth at least $60,000. And over the next few years, Walsh could pick up one more pension. If Biden gets reelected and Walsh sticks around in the administration for at least five years, he’d be eligible for a fourth pension.