Wages of Green Vacancies

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Wage offers for green vacancies are higher than for all vacancies, even when considering only full-time positions. The only exception is the top 10 percent of the distribution, where green vacancies offer $34 per hour compared to $40 for all vacancies. These results illustrate the high quality of green jobs.

These higher wages are driven primarily by differences in occupational mix rather than a “wage premium” for green jobs. Green jobs tend to fall in occupations that have higher education and skill requirements than average (see graph). 

Exceptions are due to the specific occupation or skill being hired for or the type of firm doing the hiring. Examples of occupations where emerging green specialties appeared to be better paid than others within the same occupation are business operations specialties, compliance officers, cost estimators, and marketing specialists. These are also the positions that employers reported difficulties filling. On the other hand, wages in management occupations tend to be lower paid, largely because many of these positions are in small firms in the nonprofit sector.

Other important dimensions of these jobs include:

• Almost nine out of 10 green vacancies were for full-time work. In contrast, only 6 out of 10 total vacancies were for full-time work.
• 64 percent of green jobs offered health insurance benefits, similar to that offered by all vacancies.

Green vacancies did not differ at all from the total population of vacancies with regard to seasonality: 80 percent of all reported positions were permanent.