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What If Green Jobs Don’t Pay?

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

Salaries at solar and wind companies are lower than you think.

By Brady Yauch of The Big Money

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. Wages at a number of wind and solar manufacturers are far lower than those at their more traditional counterparts—falling well below the income levels needed to support a single adult with one child.

Read more….

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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