CLEVELAND — On Monday, Cleveland City Council approved $600,000 toward the research and design phase of developing the nation’s first Universal Basic Employment program (UBE), with a pilot expected to start in two years. 

What You Need To Know

  • On Monday, Cleveland City Council approved $600,000 toward the research and design phase of developing the nation’s first Universal Basic Employment program (UBE), with a pilot expected to start in two years.

  • After two years of research, UBE will select 100 low-income Cleveland residents to working at a partner business, earning a salary of $50,000 a year for three years.

  • During those three years, UBE will assess how the program affects residents in comparison to typical social services.

  • The ultimate goal is to eventually shift the way leaders across the country think about and invest in social services to expand UBE everywhere.

The concept is to guarantee residents who want to work earn a salary of $50,000 a year with benefits.

After years of working in community development and seeing the effects of investing in social services, UBE Founder Devin Cotten said he wants to try something different. 

“I realized that our government literally subsidizes everything,” Devin Cotten, founder of UBE, said. “We subsidize roadways, businesses, all types of things. But we have failed to subsidize the individual agency and prosperity for the nearly 40 million folks living in poverty.”

Cleveland has long been one of the poorest cities in the country, with a poverty rate of about 31%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. 

Cotten said many of the residents he served in his previous role were receiving social safety net benefits, whether that be for housing, child care, food assistance or anything else. 

Many want to work, but end up taking low-paying jobs because of what’s known as the “benefits cliff” — meaning if they earn too much money, they risk losing their government benefits, costing them more money in the long run. 

“And the math just shakes out,” Cotten said. “It’s more advantageous for them to stay at home and be a full-time and fully supportive parent than it is to go to work.”

That’s why Cotten started thinking about what a Universal Basic Employment Program could do for people stuck in the cycle of poverty.

The concept is to redirect some government funding from social services to wages for UBE.

Any resident who wants to work would earn a salary of $50,000 and receive benefits at their job. 

That number comes from the Atlanta Federal Reserve benefit calculator, where Cotten said they found $50,000 was the figure for an autonomous wage for a single head of household with two kids in Cleveland.

But, if this program expands elsewhere, the wage would adjust to the cost of living in other cities. 

UBE would partner with local businesses to pay the workers’ wages, and those businesses would be responsible for providing benefits.

“Early on, I saw the value of work,” Cotten said. “What is means to not only be a paycheck, but a valued social creation allowing folks to be the because of and writing the next chapter of their own story.”

Cotten has been working with the support of Cleveland City Council member Stephanie Howse-Jones and United Way of Greater Cleveland.

However, two city council members, Mike Polensek and Kevin Bishop, were more skeptical about the program — voting against the move to fund research. 

“I was born in Glenville, raised in Collinwood,” Polensek said in a city council committee meeting. “I know poverty better than anybody. I lived it, experienced it, and I see it every day. This is my rub here. This is like that old saying: ‘You can give somebody a fish, but if you teach them how to fish, they have fish for a long time.’ We’re not teaching anybody how to fish here.”

Cotten acknowledges the risk in trying something new, but said the current system has left people stuck in the poverty cycle — and we have to try something new to see different outcomes.

“Over the next two years is when Devin Cotten really makes this idea a reality,” Ken Surratt, Chief Development and Investment Officer at United Way of Greater Cleveland. “And at the end launch a three-year pilot with 100 participants. That’s the goal of this. Just make sure that that pilot is designed with a lot of thought.”

After those two years of research, UBE will launch a pilot program to place 100 Clevelanders in jobs at local businesses, earning the established $50,000 salary for three years.

During that time, UBE will assess the program’s impact. 

The price tag for the pilot is $21 million dollars, which United Way is helping to fundraise for. 

“Putting 100 Clevelanders to work at a $50,000 salary requires significant infrastructure,” Cotten said. “It requires continuous conversation, and it requires us to again put the businesses and the participants at the center of the work we’re doing instead of the infrastructure.”

Cotten said as they continue with this ambitious experiment, structures will change and adjust as they learn through community feedback.

The ultimate goal being to eventually shift the way leaders across the country think about and invest in social services to expand UBE everywhere.