The Washington Post reported on June 7th that the City Council of Washington D.C. has approved an amendment that “calls on the city’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer to study the possibility of providing a basic income in D.C.”
The amendment was included as part of a measure to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 by 2020 — which passed unanimously on Tuesday.
Council member David Grosso, who introduced the amendment, announced its approval in a tweet — noting his concern that a minimum wage alone is not sufficiently “forward thinking.” As he says, “A minimum income is an alternative approach with the basic idea of providing a floor of income upon which residents can build other income.”
N.B. While The Washington Post describes the amendment as introducing a call to study a ‘basic income’, Grosso himself uses the term ‘minimum income’, which conventionally refers to a slightly different policy idea (cf. the first paragraph of our overview). Although context does suggest that Grosso uses the term to refer to a “basic income,” this caveat is in order.
Reference
Perry Stein, “Is a basic income possible in D.C.? The city is looking into it,” The Washington Post, June 7, 2016.
Image Credit: Ted Eytan via flickr
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