Working definitions of Good Jobs, Green Jobs, and Good Green Jobs take a first step toward building the Good Green Jobs we want and need.

A Good Job

A good job meets both:

  1. Basic needs for pay + benefits, scheduling, career path, and access to safe, secure housing AND

  2. Higher needs including meaning, growth, belonging, achievement + recognition (this is a research-based definition from the Good Jobs Institute)

A good job pays enough to meet one’s own basic needs, to save extra, and to support another person (the working-age portion of the US population is only 62.5% of the whole). Resources that aim to define this standard for different locations and circumstances include (a) MIT’s living wage calculator, and (b) The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach 2020” reports, which include national and local maps that show housing wage (spending no more than 33% of paycheck on housing, while working full time) for 1 and 2br apartments.

A good job is connected to stabilizing support structures that prioritize the worker and balance the power between workers and those who profit from work. Examples include labor unions, worker-owned companies, worker co-ops, and companies that provide Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs).

A Green Job

The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines Green Jobs as:

  1. Jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.

  2. Jobs in which workers’ duties involve making their establishment’s production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

  3. Green Jobs are then specified further into the following groups:

  • Transfer of energy sector to renewable sources

  • Energy efficiency

  • Pollution reduction and removal, greenhouse gas reduction, and recycling and reuse

  • Natural resources conservation

  • Environmental compliance, education and training, and public awareness

Our Working Definition of a Good Green Job

A good green job:

  1. Meets basic needs and carries the opportunity to meet higher needs

  2. Is connected to stabilizing structural support such as labor unions or worker owner/profit models

  3. Takes place in any tasks and sectors that contribute to preserving or enhancing the well-being, culture, and governance of both current and future generations, as well as regenerating the natural resources and interrelationships upon which they rely

Job-Related Guidance from H.R. 109

(G) ensuring that the Green New Deal mobilization creates high-quality union jobs that pay prevailing wages, hires local workers, offers training and advancement opportunities, and guarantees wage and benefit parity for workers affected by the transition;

(H) guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States;

(I) strengthening and protecting the right of all workers to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain free of coercion, intimidation, and harassment;

(J) strengthening and enforcing labor, workplace health and safety, antidiscrimination, and wage and hour standards across all employers, industries, and sectors;

(K) enacting and enforcing trade rules, procurement standards, and border adjustments with strong labor and environmental protections—

  • to stop the transfer of jobs and pollution overseas; and

  • to grow domestic manufacturing in the United States;