How Universal Basic Income (UBI) Can Empower the Working Class Through Improved Wage Negotiation and Poverty Alleviation

Abstract

Universal Basic Income (UBI) and its relationship to class are undertheorized and have received scant attention in academic literature. In this article, we address this omission of UBI and class in current discourses on UBI. We do this by focusing on how UBI can ameliorate class inequalities and ease social insecurity and precarity through a guaranteed, regular basic income. We focus on key areas where UBI can lighten the burden on the working class, namely, rebalancing power in the labour market, poverty and stigma reduction, navigating crisis (economic and Covid-19), addressing automation, improving health, and supporting employment and education. In all these areas, UBI has mitigating value for the working class, bringing new opportunities for a fulfilling life. Focusing on the UK, we believe that, with welfare reform and certain government constraints, UBI can make a significant contribution to improving the standard of living for the working class. However, we also argue that UBI has limitations since it cannot transform class relations, let alone abolish class. The article also discusses the problematic nature of defining class as binary, the significance of intersectionality, particularly between ethnicity and gender, and the development of class from Marx to current-day definitions that encompass populations who feel precarious and financially under- or unrewarded for their work.