What’s in a job?

In a perfect world, every person would work at a job that pays a family wage, as it’s called. Every person would have paid time off, health insurance and the other basic forms of compensation that come with wage-an-hour jobs.

But we all know that’s not the case. Most of us know from experience what it’s like to put off medical care in favor or paying rent or buying food.

Yet, not all jobs are created equal, and we’re not just talking about what workers are paid. We also mean quality of life.

Are you working a job that you know has associated health risks, but you do it anyway because it’s what you have to do to feed your family?

Maybe you tend bar or wait tables in a local drinking establishment that allows smoking and you risk the dangers of second-hand smoke to put food on your table and buy the school supplies your kids need.

Not all jobs have the same risks. Some jobs might give you carpal tunnel syndrome, while others might expose you to high concentrations of vehicle exhaust, like the people who work in Palmer’s Public Works Department shop where an Occupational Safety and Health Administration report has confirmed that the air quality in the city shop is dangerous to workers.

If Usibelli Coal Mine moves ahead with development of a coal lease it holds in the Sutton area, proponents say the company would add 75 or so family wage jobs locally.

In the words of Bella Hammond, wife of former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond, “If this was just about jobs.” She was speaking about a raft of jobs that would come from the proposed development of Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region.

But we think we know what she was getting at. And we think the wisdom of her words applies here in the Mat-Su Borough, too.

A truthful review of the wisdom of operating a coal mine in the heart of the Valley’s core residential area is warranted. This is an industry that — if history is any prolog — comes with a variety of risks and possible social impacts.

When the new Three Bears store opened on Knik-Goose Bay, it added new jobs. So did Red Robin Restaurant and the new Valley Cinema in Wasilla. Combined, they added hundreds more jobs than the Usibelli project might add.

But the differences between the two groups of jobs are noteworthy.

While jobs added in the service and retail sectors don’t often pay “family wages,” these jobs also largely lack the associated health risks that come with coal mining.

It’s these two variables — pay and accompanying risk — that we see as fueling debate locally and in the Bristol Bay region where voters approved a resolution recently opposing the Pebble project.

Workers may choose to take risks that come with jobs in smoky bars or coal mines. But in the case of coal, it’s our whole community that assumes the associated risk.