The Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act, introduced last week by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., would establish a pilot jobs guarantee program in up to 15 high-unemployment communities nationwide.
"We have tunnels and bridges in disrepair, families that can't find child care and aging and toxic water infrastructure, which means there are plenty of jobs available and unfilled," Watson Coleman said. "This is not the result of a lack of people willing to do the work; it's a gap created because localities cannot afford to pay them thanks to an ever-rising affordability crisis and lack of funding from the Trump administration."
The bill, which originally was introduced in 2018, was the first legislation of its kind to be proposed in Congress. According to bill sponsors, it would:
- Target employment in vital labor forces. The job guarantee program would create more opportunities for the support of family care, infrastructure development, community revitalization and more.
- Level the playing field for job opportunities across communities. Today, the unemployment rate is 4.4%. A job guarantee program would ensure that both racially and geographically marginalized communities across the nation, which experience above-average unemployment rates, would have an opportunity to join the workforce.
- Raise the floor for workforce wages. As unemployment rates remain at higher levels and more and more Americans seek job opportunities with greater urgency, employers are more likely to take advantage, offering jobs at lower wages. The job guarantee program would help set a new baseline for wages, urging private-sector employers to raise wages to incentivize employment over public-sector jobs.
The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Ilhan Omar, D. Minn., Summer Lee, D-Pa., and LaMonica McIver, D-N.J. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., plans to introduce a companion bill in the Senate.
"Our economy is supposed to be built on the promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, you and your family can get ahead -- but right now, that American promise is broken," Booker said. "Americans want to build a better future, but with over 7.5 million people unemployed and nearly 40 million earning less than $17 an hour, the system is rigged against them. Our bill would make a direct investment in people by guaranteeing good-paying jobs, equipping workers with real skills and strengthening the communities that power our economy."
Previous attempts to guarantee employment have been met with skepticism. Max Gulker, Ph.D., senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, recently commented on these types of programs in general, although not specifically on the proposed bill.
"Millions would be siphoned into a bureaucratic system that eschewed market signals essential to allocating labor to its greatest social benefit," he said. "The resulting system would likely slow economic growth and squash workers' incentives to invest in themselves. Rejecting a federal job guarantee as a bad proposal does not mean minimizing or accepting the plight of those who continue to struggle. We, as individuals, families, organizations and governments, can do better by them without ripping up the fabric of our labor market."
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.