Daylighting Pathways to Good Jobs in California’s Solar Industry
Daylighting Pathways to Good Jobs in California’s Solar Industry

Author: Neha Bazaj

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This paper identifies the opportunities for, and challenges to, creating good quality jobs for socioeconomically disadvantaged workers through mid-size solar photovoltaic projects in California. Recent policy proposals in the United States suggest that clean energy investments can address both climate change and economic inequality, but existing research calls those claims into question. This paper elaborates on the history of union organizing, project labor agreements and prevailing wage law in the solar photovoltaic industry in California, providing some insight into the opportunities for using these tools to shape job quality in the mid-size solar photovoltaic sector. In combination with key informant interviews, this will enable us to address the question: under what conditions might mid-size solar photovoltaic projects enable good jobs? My analysis suggests that union organizing, project labor agreements and prevailing wage laws are likely to play a smaller role in mid-size projects than they have in utility-scale projects, and thus additional tools are necessary to ensure that mid-size solar photovoltaic projects create good quality jobs for those that need them the most. Policymakers should consider how to attach workforce investment requirements and labor standards to any regulatory incentives for mid-size projects.

UNEVEN PROGRESS
UNEVEN PROGRESS

Author:

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

After more than three years of job growth, the pace of the recovery has been on par with that of previous recoveries in the state, which is bad news for California's workers given the historic severity of job losses during the Great Recession. [...] Even after three years of job growth at a pace comparable to that of prior recoveries, there were still 598,600 fewer jobs in June 2013 than there were before the recession began, putting the number of jobs 3.9 percent below the pre-recession level.4 This is due to the severity of the Great Recession, which saw the loss of 1.4 million jobs in California and represented a much deeper hole in the jo. [...] These are both higher than the 2012 California median hourly wage of $19.07.33 While the growing strength of the education and health services industry - with a median wage of $20.15 in 2012 - means new jobs paying around the statewide median, the growth of this sector thus far has not made up for the relative weakness of the government and construction industries compared to previous recoveries.3. [...] In 2012, the median hourly wage for a worker in this industry was $11.20, about 50 cents more than what the 20th percentile of workers in California earned that year.30 The food and accommodation industry, which represents the bulk of the jobs within leisure and hospitality, has also outpaced the job growth of other service industries during the recovery but typically pays low wages. [...] The Employment Development Department uses the month when the total number of jobs in the state peaked and bottomed out to indicate the start and end of downturns in California.