Non-union: Tesla paying $25 an hour for battery plant new hires

Nevada is the Silver State but workers hired at the new Tesla battery factory will strike gold.

The next time some union goon tells you that workers have to belong to a union to earn top dollar tell them about Tesla.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Tesla Motors plans to pay an average hourly wage of $25 at its huge battery factory under construction near Reno, Nev., the head of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada said.

That is higher than nearly all automakers in the U.S. are paying new hires and nearly double what most parts suppliers pay. It's also above the $17 starting hourly wage of Tesla workers who assemble its Model S sedan in Fremont, Calif., near San Jose.

Tesla is building a massive battery plant called the Gigafactory in the desert east of Reno, and is planning to hire 6,500 workers over the next eight years.

In the Sunday edition of the Reno Gazette-Journal, Mike Kazmierski, CEO of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, said Tesla's pay scale is driving up what existing and new employers in the area are paying.