Un article en anglais d’Anna Dent pour la RSA s’interroge sur les bénéfices et les limites à attendre d’un revenu inconditionnel pour les travailleurs et travailleuses pauvres.
Basic income would supplement the income of people in low paid work, whether through reasons of under-employment, low wages, or insecure and unpredictable shifts and contracts. So it would have the immediate effect of increasing household income and providing more security and stability in income levels.
However, it would be open to the same arguments that apply to tax credits and housing benefit currently – that they are subsidising employers, enabling them to maximise profits by paying low wages, knowing that state benefits will pick up the slack. If employers can’t or won’t pay wages high enough to keep workers above the poverty line, paying a basic income might lift people out of poverty, but would it also have any impact on the structural issues in the labour market?
Illustration : CC 0 Jon Tyson.
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