PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mark Paul
AU  - William Darity, Jr.
AU  - Darrick Hamilton
AU  - Khaing Zaw
TI  - A Path to Ending Poverty by Way of Ending Unemployment: A Federal Job Guarantee
AID  - 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.3.03
DP  - 2018 Feb 01
TA  - RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
PG  - 44--63
VI  - 4
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/4/3/44.short
4100  - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/4/3/44.full
AB  - Poverty in the United States, one of the world’s most wealthy and prosperous nations, is persistently high. Despite a complex array of social insurance programs in place, 43.1 million people remain in poverty. Because unemployment is a strong predictor of poverty, we propose a permanent federal job guarantee for all Americans. The program would provide full-time employment for any American over eighteen, offering at least nonpoverty wages plus benefits. Such a program will constitute a direct route to producing full employment by eradicating involuntary unemployment. It also will substantially increase worker bargaining power by removing the employer threat of unemployment. To make the case that the federal job guarantee is viable, this paper includes responses to five common criticisms lodged against programs of this type.