A well-paying job is a job that pays well, while a good-paying job is a good job that pays.
As a compound word, well-paying is obviously correct as there should be an adverb (well) to modify the participle (paying).
As good-paying is also used by more and more people in informal speech, it cannot be considered incorrect either, but it should be avoided.
- As long as Iโve got a well-paying job here, Iโm not going to relocate.
- We need to get more well-paying clients to keep our business alive.
- President Barack Obama made a strong case during Tuesday nightโs debate for how his administration would create โnot just jobs,โ but โgood-paying jobs.โ (Source)
Note
A well-paid job is a job that is paid well, which means that you are paid well in the job:
- They offer quite many well-paid jobs at the new IT company.
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If it weโre referencing a good job that pays well, it would be โa good, paying job.โ When hyphenated, good-paying is simply grammatically incorrect, since it connects the modifier โgoodโ to the verb. The same issue arises with phrases like โgood-fitting clothing.โ
Thank you Doug!