You may have seen the article in the New York Times about the Universal Basic Income pilot in Chicago, supporting individuals with $500 monthly checks for a year, no string attached and almost no questions asked. As the article says, 5,000 city residents will receive this basic income in the form of cash for a year, at a cost of $31.5 million. No surprise, the article also discusses how Democrats and Republicans view the effectiveness of a program like this differently.
In Cleveland, there’s a different pilot initiative that perhaps both Democrats and Republicans can get behind (at least, that’s what some national advisors to the initiative have indicated). It’s called Universal Basic Employment & Opportunity. The brainchild of Devin H. Cotten, a native of Northeast Ohio and former corporate and community development leader, Universal Basic Employment & Opportunity would test the ability of a jobs guarantee to eliminate poverty and be stop payment on its many symptoms. It would also provide an alternative approach for governments to consider as they implement the types of social programs intended to lift individuals out of poverty.
The premise of Universal Basic Employment is that individuals will earn a family sustaining wage – determined to be $50,000 for purposes of this pilot – for working fulltime in roles that today, are not paying that level of wage. The mission of UBE goes beyond elevating folks out of poverty, but to restoring the individual agency and prosperity to individuals by dignifying historically low-wage work. The envisioned pilot will provide Black women in Cleveland currently serving in direct care roles the opportunity to earn $50,000 for two years, while foregoing public benefits. They will also have access to both personal supports that might be helpful (such as financial counseling or support with problem solving) as well as career advancement opportunities; the intention of the latter is enable them to upskill sufficiently to earn the $50,000 annually at the end of the pilot through securing a new job which pays this salary based on market rates.
UBE is undertaking a human-centered design approach to the development of this public policy initiative. They have intentionally left parts of the pilot undesigned to allow the voice of 20 Black women to significantly influence the final product. Far too often policy solutions have been developed with those most proximate to the problem furthest from the solution. UBE aims to reverse this trend with upcoming focus groups conducted by Monique Williams of Monique Inc. In partnership with local, statewide, and national partners, UBE will begin the fund development process for the full two-year pilot at the conclusion of the human-centered design phase.
To learn more about this innovation planned to be implemented here in greater Cleveland, feel free to reach out to Devin H. Cotten at devin@ubemployment.org. He’d be excited to share more about the work.