My project has been to estimate how many US workers would drop out of the labor market or reduce their work hours if working age adults received a guaranteed Universal Basic Income (UBI) of about $1200 a month – similar to the gross monthly pay for a full-time minimum wage job. As of the last post in this series, I had identified about 33 million workers: a subset of disability benefit applicants who had to go back to work because their applications were denied, part-time workers (most of whom are busy and don’t need to work more hours), and poorly educated/poorly skilled/poorly paid full-time workers age 25 and older. Thirty-three million adults is about 21% of the civilian workforce.

There are also post-college millennials in their twenties who would really like to extend their years of exploration and excitement but are working full-time because, well, bills. How many of these individuals would delay entry into adulthood if they received a monthly UBI, allowing them to, say, travel or pursue a creative passion? Who knows? Pew-quality research has not been done.

However, I did find an interesting flexjobs.com  survey, not scientific yet suggestive, that bears on this very question. In the survey, 211 well-educated respondents, all aged 35 or under, wanted to reduce their work hours to pursue other activities. Most (57%) were full-time employees. Here’s what they said they'd rather do with their time:

  • Spend quality time with loved ones (55 percent)
  • Pursue a creative passion, like art, music, video (39 percent)
  • Travel (38 percent)
  • Go to school (32 percent)
  • Volunteer (29 percent)
  • Take care of their heath (29 percent)
  • Take care of child (children) (29 percent)

It's impossible to know how many well-educated twenty-somethings would delay full-time employment should they be guaranteed a UBI. I know I would have been tempted to take extra time off if the government were sending me the equivalent of the gross pay of a full-time minimum wage job. Maybe work two or three days a week, live with a bunch of roommates, and chase after dreams. Or work really hard during summers and take the rest of the year off. The new, longer, "gap" years: not a bad lifestyle for a while.

Why does it matter how much a UBI would impact labor market participation. Let me count the ways...soon.