Using cash to rebalance power in favor of workers.

With a guaranteed income, workers have the power to demand fairness and the freedom to make decisions that support themselves and their families.

Download Our Report: The Power of Cash
Vision

Vision

A just economy means workers, rather than just corporations, enjoy the benefits of their labor. By providing an income floor through which no one can fall, guaranteed income can further boost workers’ power to demand better wages and working conditions from their employers, switch jobs, and opt out of taking bad jobs. Unions and effective public programs work together to rebalance power in our economy.

Challenge

Challenge

We envision an economy that ensures everyone has what they need to thrive like safe housing, good food, and time for rest. This economic foundation is long past due. Yet corporations have structured our current economy to benefit the wealthy few rather than workers and their families. While corporate profits have been soaring, workers’ wages have been stagnant for the past 65 years, not keeping pace with the productivity of workers or the rising cost of living. With a current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, many workers work multiple jobs and still cannot cover their bills.

Recognizing the untenable position many Americans faced during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government and many state governments expanded public investments and provided workers and families with cash supplements, including unemployment insurance (UI), paid sick leave, stimulus checks and the Child Tax Credit. With this support, workers’ demonstrated their power. In 2020, 65% of all Americans said they would join a union if they could, up from 45% in 2018. In the first half of fiscal year 2022, workers filed 58% more union representation petitions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and 16% more unfair labor practice charges as compared to the same time period in fiscal year 2021. By giving workers a permanent “strike fund”, a permanent guaranteed income could reduce the amount of control employers have over workers’ basic survival and further empower workers to organize and demand better pay and working conditions.

What We Do

What We Do

A conversation with Roy Bahat (Bloomberg Beta), Sumbul Siddiqui (Mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts), Erica Smiley (Jobs With Justice), Dorian Warren (Community Change and the Economic Security Project), and moderator Natalie Foster hosted by the Aspen Institute.
Economic Security Project, Community Change, and Economic Security for Illinois hosted an event with labor leaders to learn how guaranteed income can boost the power workers have to demand better wages and working conditions from their employers, switch jobs, and opt out of taking bad jobs.
The Guaranteed Income and Worker Power roundtable was jointly hosted by Economic Security Project, Jobs for Justice, Community Change, and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Grounded in this moment, these conversations were concerned with a broader question: how can a guaranteed income support labor organizing and help workers leverage their power?