Yellow Light on Green Jobs

Source: United States Senate Subcommittee on Green Jobs, Ranking Member Report, Spring 2009

From the press release:
The lessons from Yellow Light on Green Jobs for policymakers include:
· Do not kill existing jobs to create new jobs
· Avoid expensive taxpayer subsidies to pay for green jobs
· Promote only those green jobs that make economic sense

The Yellow Light on Green Jobs report reveals that many green jobs do not offer wages needed to support U.S. families. A coalition of labor and environmental groups found that state and local governments were spending tens of millions of dollars to subsidize only a few hundred green jobs, which were paying as low as $13 to $15 dollars per hour, not much above the federal poverty wage of $10 per hour.