Green jobs not always good jobs

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Amid all the clamour for a green-led recovery from world recession a US report warns that not all the jobs in the emerging environmental sector are necessarily good jobs with attractive pay and conditions.

The report, High Road or Low Road: Job Quality in the New Green Economy, found that jobs in renewable energy and waste management in the US can often pay significantly less than comparable jobs in manufacturing.

Only one of the renewable manufacturing facilities surveyed for the report paid an hourly wage that was sufficient to support a family of four. A quarter of those firms paid wage rates below the levels necessary to meet the basic needs of an adult with one child, the report found.

“Our survey results suggest that wind and solar manufacturing workers earn more than the typical employee at a Wal-Mart store, but it would be a stretch to say that all of them have good jobs,” the report concluded.

It found that pay rates at many wind and solar manufacturers are below the $18.88-per-hour national average for workers in durable goods manufacture. The lowest wage found was $8.25 an hour at a recycling processing plant, while lowest in renewable energy was $11 per hour.

The report was written by Good Jobs First and commissioned by Change to Win, Sierra Club, the Laborers’ International Union (LIU) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. They called on minimum “living wage” standards to be imposed on companies benefiting from the billions of tax incentives and subsidies being offered to the green sector as part of President Obama’s fiscal stimulus package.

The Obama administration and governments around the developed world are promising big spending programmes in the areas of renewable energy and climate change to create jobs and help boost their economies.

As taxpayers invest in the green economy, the government is obligated to ensure those investments support communities and families, LIU general president Terry O’Sullivan said.

“This report shows how green jobs, if not true to their purpose, can drive down our economy, impoverish families and put the hope of a halt to global warming and prosperity out of reach,” said O’Sullivan. “We will only succeed if we make sure the people who build the green economy and keep it running have jobs that allow them to fully participate in that economy.”