The economy, work and employment

Abstract

This chapter examines the changing employment market in the UK and suggests that a Citizen's Basic Income is appropriate to any future scenario. It first considers the economic efficiency of a Citizen's Basic Income and how a Citizen's Basic Income would facilitate a more flexible employment market, resulting in a more efficient allocation of labour, and thus in a more efficient economy. It then discusses the effects of a Citizen's Basic Income on employment with respect to the so-called precarity trap, marginal deduction rates, part-time employment, choice in employment patterns, and education and training. It also explains why a Citizen's Basic Income is appropriate to any future employment market and concludes by outlining how, by disconnecting work and income, it would ascribe value to all kinds of work, thus creating a level playing field between paid employment, care work and voluntary activity in and for the community.