The regular job market is like a game of musical chairs.  Someone is always left out.  Private sector employers find new ways every day to cut labor costs to protect profits, leaving many people without jobs.  For example, in March 2026 over  17 million people in the U.S. were unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work.

To build a great society we must immunize every worker in our country from income insecurity by attacking the chronic disease of unemployment with a comprehensive, nationwide, and permanent Federal Jobs Guarantee.

Please sign and call

If you agree, please sign this petition, and call your 2 senators and 1 Congressional representative using the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121.  Here’s what to say:

“Hi, I’d like to see Congress pass a Federal Jobs Guarantee.  It would enable everyone who’s willing and able to work to provide income for themselves and their family.  It would also bring millions of working-class votes to those in Congress who support it."

What is a Federal Jobs Guarantee?
A Federal Jobs Guarantee is the ultimate anti-poverty vaccine.  It would fight the disease of poverty by assuring a decent income equal to about 2 1/2 times the poverty rate for a single-person household, or about $50,000/year, to everyone who was willing and able to work.  A guaranteed job means people can buy what they need to live.

A Federal Jobs Guarantee (JG) would have six main features. A Jobs Guarantee would give everyone in the country over 16 years old the legal right to a job at $25/hr., plus benefits, including free or low-cost childcare, medical care, and social security retirement.  House Resolution 1011, February 2024  proposed by Representative Ayanna Pressley, (D. Mass.) is a good legislative example of what a Jobs Guarantee like this would look like.

1. The federal government would fund the jobs, local governments and PVOs would design and manage them.  This matches the work to the needs of each community and keeps administrative functions local.  The federal government pays the salaries.
2.  A Federal Jobs Guarantee will mainly help lower income people.  Because all JG jobs pay the same $25/hour with benefits, the program will automatically be limited to people willing to work for $25/hr.  This eliminates complicated application processes, and red tape and assures that the money for this program goes to people who need it.
3.  A Jobs Guarantee would force non-federal employers to raise their pay and benefits floor to the new Jobs Guarantee pay and benefits standard to keep their lower-paid employees.  It eliminates the need to pass or enforce minimum wage laws in thousands of different localities.  Workers who make less than $25/hour would simply vote with their feet by moving to the JG jobs.
4.  JG jobs preserve workers’ health and welfare.  They protect workers and their families during economic downturns so that they’re able to return to private sector work when the economy picks up.  They expand the pool of entry level workers by encouraging more people to work.  JG workers make good workers and good customers who support businesses and the economy.
5.  JG jobs are a stairway to something better.  People may use them to start or re-start their careers. They will help people such as students starting out; people who need to earn a living while they acquire language skills and learn the culture; people with poor work records or who have been out of the labor force for a long time.  Caretakers will be free to work full-time or part-time.  Workers are free to come and go from JG jobs, enabling people to try out regular jobs knowing that they will always have a JG job to fall back on if the regular job doesn’t work out.

Everyone in the U.S who wants a job should have a job.