"What if green jobs don't pay?" asks Brady Yauch, a writer for the Slate-owned Web site
The Big Money.
He writes:
"The Obama administration is putting a lot of stock in the concept of "green jobs." In late February, Vice President Joe Biden threw his weight behind the green movement and the $20 billion in the stimulus package devoted to green investment. Biden claimed that people who earn $20 per hour prior to green job training can make as much as $50 per hour afterward. Sounds great, right? But that scenario could be way off base. At least that's what a recent report from
Good Jobs First says could happen if the creation of green jobs isn't backed by strong government regulation and oversight. GJF's report notes that it's not uncommon for workers in the green field to earn as little as $8.25 an hour."
My first thought after reading the above excerpt was that wages would likely go up after these companies receive government funds, but as Yauch points out:
"Take United Solar Ovonic as an example. After receiving generous government subsidies amounting to $277,000 for every new job created, the company refused to meet the prevailing wage rule in Battle Creek, Mich., and pay $16 an hour. The company quickly started threatening to move its operations elsewhere. The city eventually backed down and allowed the company to pay its workers $14 an hour—70 percent of what it takes to sustain a family of four. It's also well below the $18.88 an hour average wage for production workers in the durable goods industry."
One thing Yauch doesn't touch on, though, is the fact that wages in many traditional manufacturing sectors such as the auto industry are going down to be more competitive, i.e.
concessions by the UAW.
Even with concessions, though, many traditional manufacturing workers will still make more than $14 an hour.
I guess I'm in the camp that low-paying jobs are better than no jobs, though I'm not sure that government subsidies will do any good.
Do Green Jobs Pay?
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