Summary

A guaranteed income (GI) is an unconditional cash transfer that provides a recurring, predictable amount of cash to an individual or household that one can rely on over time. Unlike traditional safety-net benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, there are no restrictions on how recipients spend the cash. Some GI programs in the United States target populations such as households with children or those below a preset income threshold. However, all share the common feature of recurring payments with no strings attached.

The term GI is frequently conflated with other types of unconditional cash benefits such as a universal basic income (UBI) or basic income. While all share common features of unconditionality and recurrence, they differ in scope, target populations, income thresholds, and duration. A basic income is a fixed and recurring amount of cash ample enough to keep a household above the poverty line and to provide for basic needs. A UBI is a predictable and fixed unconditional cash transfer that is large enough to provide for basic needs. It differs from a GI in that it applies universally to everyone living in a geographic area. While many advocates for a UBI or basic income argue for perpetuity, most GI experiments in the United States are time-limited.

A moral proposition that a floor exists below which no one should live anchors all three forms of unconditional cash benefits, regardless of the household’s participation in waged labor or in safety-net programs. In the wake of the Great Recession (December 2007–June 2009), a protracted lack of economic mobility, rising income inequality, and the financial pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, sparked a proliferation of GI experiments across the United States in both Republican and Democratic strongholds.