A Graduated Universal Basic Income (GUBI) is a Universal Basic Income (UBI) that stays affordable by decreasing gradually with earned income. Like UBI, GUBI guarantees every American a certain minimum income per month (max_GUBI). Unlike UBI, for each dollar earned, the payment is decreased by a specific fraction of that dollar (earnings_factor).
The basic mathematical description is as follows:
Monthly GUBI Payment =
MAX($0, (max_GUBI - (monthly_income * earnings_factor)))
where:
max_GUBI = maximum per-person monthly GUBI amountmonthly_income = average monthly income over the past 12 monthsearnings_factor = how quickly your GUBI payment decreases with your earnings. [0,1]The GUBI payment is calculated on a per-household basis. For households with more than one person, max_GUBI is multiplied by the number of people in the household and decreases based on the annual total income of the household. (In case it makes more intuitive sense, this is mathematically equivalent to calculating it on a per-person basis where the total household income is divided equally among the members of the household)
One bar per Census income band. Grey is earnings; each colour above it is the GUBI for a household of that size — find your colour and read the top of it.
Roll over any coloured box for the households it stands for and what that piece costs.
What a person with no income receives each month.
How fast the payment is withdrawn as you earn. At 0.33 you lose 33¢ of payment per dollar earned.
The programs replaced are the broad federal cash ones — the refundable EITC, SNAP, and the refundable child credit. SSI, housing assistance, Social Security and state aid are left alone. Their FY2024 cost is about $195 billion; count the EITC in full rather than only its refundable part and the figure runs nearer $200 billion.