The Guaranteed Income Pilots Dashboard is designed to visualize data from 30+ guaranteed income pilots across the United States. The data and testimonies from participants shed light on ways in which unconditional cash can facilitate individuals' opportunity, freedom, and resilience to build financial security. The Dashboard launched in September 2022.
Guaranteed income is a cash payment provided on a regular basis to individuals or households, with no work requirements, and no strings attached. It is intended to create an income floor below which no one can fall and promote the dignity of all. Guaranteed income shares close ties with other unconditional cash programs like universal basic income and the negative income tax. Guaranteed income payments are often targeted to individuals in a community with the greatest need.
How many guaranteed income pilots are there currently?
What do guaranteed income pilots and demonstrations seek to achieve?
This wave of pilots across the U.S. builds the case for a guaranteed income at the local, state, and federal level. The evidence gathered through pilots tells the story of those struggling to achieve economic security and helps inform policy. There is a lot that we already know about the positive effects of unconditional cash. Unconditional cash has a range of important benefits for participants and their communities, including improved health, income security, and employment. While previous research has focused mostly on labor and employment outcomes, this new wave of pilots is yielding extensive research across a range of health, social, community, economic, and labor impacts. And while the economic benefits are most obvious, positive impacts on well-being, belonging, and self-worth are also critical to our understanding of guaranteed income.
Data
What is demographic data?
Demographic data is descriptive information about groups of pilot participants, such as the number who have consented to participate in research (treatment group), average age, percentage of children in a household, average number of children in a household, average household size, gender, ethnicity, race, marital status, primary language at home, and annual household income. The race and ethnicity categories are not mutually exclusive; participants were able to answer as they wished in either of these categories.
Demographic data presented on each pilot’s dashboard page reflects those in a pilot’s treatment group who have consented to participate in research. Because some pilot participants are not part of a research cohort, the total number of participants in a pilot, indicated at the top of each pilot page, may differ from the total number in the treatment group.
What is spending data, and how was it collected?
Spending data reflects how guaranteed income pilot participants spend their money. The spending data presented on the Dashboard reflects transactions within a bank account or on a debit card. Cash transactions, which represent ~40% of spending, are not included in spending data. For participants who linked their guaranteed income debit cards to their main bank account, the entirety of their spending data is shown, not just how they spend the guaranteed income. The landing page spending graph combines results from all guaranteed income participants across all pilots with spending data from the beginning to the end of payments to participants, or through the date when data were last updated (as indicated on each pilot page). Each pilot page graph presents results from all participants with spending data from that site in the same time frame. Baltimore, Cambridge, Oakland, and Richmond do not have spending data included on the dashboard, and aggregate spending data does not include these pilots. Also note that spending and demographic data only reflect the first cohort of 100 mothers of The Bridge Project’s (New York City) 600 participants.
Why is spending data important?
There are pervasive and harmful stereotypes about recipients of cash assistance. Some of these myths are about low-income families and the ability of people of color to spend responsibly, save, and invest in their future. Historically, these myths have been used to oppose welfare programs. Although it takes much more than data to challenge these stereotypes and myths, spending data can help shift our narratives about poverty and cash. As the data indicates, guaranteed income participants spend most of their income on the same things everyone else spends their money on: basic necessities. Some guaranteed income participants are able to pay off debts and save for future emergencies. Others are able to use their cash in ways that help them find new or better employment.
What types of spending are included in each category?
Educational expenses: Tuition and fees required to enroll at or attend an educational institution (primary/secondary/college/vocational/technical schools), and tutoring services.
Financial transactions: Fees and charges paid to financial institutions for loans, account set-up, maintenance, transactional services, consultancy, insurance, and brokerage fees.
Food and groceries: Expenses related to shopping for grocery, takeout, meal kits, and dining out.
Healthcare/Medical expenses: Expenses for medical services rendered by physicians, surgeons, dentists, and other medical practitioners, including pharmacy purchases.
Miscellaneous expenses: Expenses related to charitable donations, government fines and fees.
Retail sales and services: Expenses incurred in large and small chain stores, wholesale and discount clubs, single retail stores, subscription services, professional services, and maintenance and repair services. Includes discount superstores, like Target and Walmart, where participants can purchase food, school supplies, medical products, etc.
Transport related expenses: Expenses incurred on fuel, parking, vehicle purchase, vehicle maintenance and repair, public transit, ride-shares, and other commuting expenses.
Travel/Leisure/Entertainment: Expenses incurred on lodging, air travel, other vacation costs, movies, theaters, sports events, and other related spending.
Housing & Utilities: Expenses incurred on rent, mortgage, property taxes, electric, heating, water, sanitation, and related spending.
What data will be added to this dashboard in the future?
Spending data is updated quarterly until a pilot ends. Final evaluation reports are added to each pilot page as the reports are completed and released. Future dashboard updates will include data on the well-being and outcomes of caregivers who are receiving unconditional cash.
How have the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic affected pilot participants?
The guaranteed income pilots featured in the Dashboard launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of dynamic change and economic challenges for pilot participants. The chart on the landing page and each pilot page situates pilots in the context of high (then decreasing) unemployment and rising inflation. This rollercoaster ride of economic changes has disproportionately harmed low-income individuals and families. COVID-era job losses were concentrated in low-wage sectors like leisure, hospitality, and retail. Lower earners depleted savings during unemployment. Then, high inflation eroded the purchasing power of their earnings. Higher interest rates also made borrowing and carrying credit card and other debt more expensive.
Storytelling
Who are storytellers?
Storytellers are a diverse group of pilot participants who have volunteered to share their personal experience for a public audience. Members of the storytelling cohort choose what opportunities they accept and can withdraw from storytelling at any point during a pilot. Storytellers receive guaranteed income payments, but do not participate in the research so that they may speak freely and their interactions with the public do not influence research findings.
Why is storytelling important?
Formal research reports and quantitative study results tell part of the story. But important stories are not always in the numbers. Pilot participants themselves are best positioned to reflect on the impact of guaranteed income payments in their daily lives. Participant testimonies bring a diversity of lived experiences to the forefront of the conversation about unconditional cash and economic security. The challenges, opportunities, and solutions they share help make sense of the data and inform our collective understanding.
What is the difference between storytelling and qualitative data?
Storytelling is not research. Rather, storytelling enriches our public conversations around guaranteed income by situating community members as the narrators of their own lives. In contrast, qualitative research is a distinct naturalistic research method that collects nonnumerical data such as text, narrative, multimedia, video, or audio to provide an in-depth and rigorous understanding of a topic or social phenomenon. CGIR's evaluations of all pilots include analysis of qualitative data.
For inquiries related to the broader landscape of basic income experiments, and other basic income research and practice resources, please contact the Stanford Basic Income Lab.
Who created those cool silhouettes on the site?
Buckley is a visual philosopher whose work is collected and commissioned internationally. You can learn more about Buckley here.
