Federal job guarantee proposal against AI-driven unemployment
Following warnings of mass AI-driven unemployment by figures such as Bill Gates and Dario Amodei, a federal job guarantee program with a $25 hourly minimum wage is being debated in the US.
In response to widespread job losses that could occur within the next decade due to the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, a federal job guarantee program has come to the agenda in the US.
Bill Gates and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have warned that artificial intelligence technologies could lead to widespread unemployment across various sectors. In response to these concerns, a federal job guarantee model aimed at protecting workers and meeting social needs is being proposed.
In September 2026, US Representative Ayanna Pressley introduced a bill to Congress for a federally funded, locally managed job guarantee program featuring a $25 hourly minimum wage. Democratic representatives such as Greg Casar, Valerie Foushee, and Sara Jacobs have proposed taxing the revenues or token values of large AI companies to fund the program.
Cleveland, Ohio-based NGO Universal Basic Employment (UBE) launched a pilot study raising the wages of five workers to an 'autonomous wage' level of over $27 per hour to demonstrate the feasibility of work-based social support.
Sources
- theguardian.com · Link