Solar Intelligence Training Academy Credit: Courtesy of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network
People across our city and state are struggling to pay their bills and keep their families housed and fed. In parts of my district, unemployment continues to far outpace state and national averages. In Detroit, median household income is $31,000 below the regional average and nearly $45,000 short of what a family of four needs just to survive, let alone thrive. These numbers aren’t abstractions—they represent neighbors choosing between rent and groceries, parents piecing together unstable work, and communities absorbing the long-term costs of economic insecurity.
At the same time, a simple but transformative idea is gaining renewed attention: if someone is willing and able to work, they should have the right to a job that pays a living wage, builds skills, and strengthens the community. Often referred to as a Job Guarantee, Universal Basic Employment, or Public Service Employment, this idea is not new. Its roots stretch back more than a century, grounded in the belief that work is both a source of dignity and a public good.
Today, Cleveland is putting this idea into practice. The city is piloting a program that offers public service jobs to residents facing unemployment or unstable work, these are jobs that pay wages people can live on while also supporting small businesses and addressing unmet community needs. Importantly, Cleveland has aligned its pilot with sectors facing real workforce shortages, including early childhood education and public works. Councilmember Stephanie Howze-Jones has emphasized grounding the program in community priorities, ensuring that public investment meets public need. It’s a model worth paying close attention to.
Stephanie Chang
A job guarantee represents a fundamental shift in how we think about unemployment. Too often, joblessness is framed as an individual failure, when in reality it is frequently the result of systemic breakdowns including volatile labor markets, insufficient wages, lack of childcare, discrimination, or economic shocks beyond any one person’s control. When willing workers are left on the sidelines, families fall deeper into poverty, critical work goes undone, and our economy suffers.
Imagine what a Job Guarantee pilot could mean for Detroit and other Michigan cities? We could address urgent care needs by expanding support for early childhood education, assisting seniors, and supporting people with disabilities. We could tackle long-standing infrastructure challenges by restoring parks, improving transit access, greening vacant lots, and strengthening local water and food systems. We could also prepare workers for the clean energy transition by training and deploying teams to retrofit homes, install solar, and build climate resilience – all work that benefits both workers and the city as a whole.
The evidence is clear: when people have access to meaningful, stable work, communities are stronger and more resilient. A job guarantee acts as a stabilizer during economic downturns, ensuring that people can continue contributing rather than being pushed out of the labor market. During periods of growth, it helps fill gaps the private market leaves behind. Either way, it strengthens the broader economy.
Critically, we are already paying the price for inaction. The costs of unemployment in the form of homelessness, health crises, public safety expenditures, and lost tax revenue—place a heavy burden on Michigan’s state and local budgets. A job guarantee doesn’t eliminate costs; it redirects them. Instead of paying for crisis response after families fall behind, we invest upstream in wages, skills, and community well-being. That is not only more humane—it’s more fiscally responsible.
Detroit has an opportunity in 2026 to lead with vision and pragmatism. By launching a Job Guarantee pilot we can test a bold approach that meets people where they are and builds an economy that works for everyone. Our city and its people have the ingenuity, grit, and heart to show what economic justice looks like in practice.
Now is the moment to act.
Senator Stephanie Chang serves Michigan Senate District 3. She is the first Asian American woman elected to the Michigan legislature. She worked as a community organizer in Detroit for nearly a decade before serving two terms in the Michigan House of Representatives and then as the Democratic Floor Leader for her first term in the Senate. She is currently serving her second term in the Michigan Senate and is the Senate Democratic Policy and Steering Chair.
Op-ed: It’s time to try a jobs guarantee in Detroit
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People across our city and state are struggling to pay their bills and keep their families housed and fed. In parts of my district, unemployment continues to far outpace state and national averages. In Detroit, median household income is $31,000 below the regional average and nearly $45,000 short of what a family of four needs just to survive, let alone thrive. These numbers aren’t abstractions—they represent neighbors choosing between rent and groceries, parents piecing together unstable work, and communities absorbing the long-term costs of economic insecurity.
At the same time, a simple but transformative idea is gaining renewed attention: if someone is willing and able to work, they should have the right to a job that pays a living wage, builds skills, and strengthens the community. Often referred to as a Job Guarantee, Universal Basic Employment, or Public Service Employment, this idea is not new. Its roots stretch back more than a century, grounded in the belief that work is both a source of dignity and a public good.
Today, Cleveland is putting this idea into practice. The city is piloting a program that offers public service jobs to residents facing unemployment or unstable work, these are jobs that pay wages people can live on while also supporting small businesses and addressing unmet community needs. Importantly, Cleveland has aligned its pilot with sectors facing real workforce shortages, including early childhood education and public works. Councilmember Stephanie Howze-Jones has emphasized grounding the program in community priorities, ensuring that public investment meets public need. It’s a model worth paying close attention to.
A job guarantee represents a fundamental shift in how we think about unemployment. Too often, joblessness is framed as an individual failure, when in reality it is frequently the result of systemic breakdowns including volatile labor markets, insufficient wages, lack of childcare, discrimination, or economic shocks beyond any one person’s control. When willing workers are left on the sidelines, families fall deeper into poverty, critical work goes undone, and our economy suffers.
Imagine what a Job Guarantee pilot could mean for Detroit and other Michigan cities? We could address urgent care needs by expanding support for early childhood education, assisting seniors, and supporting people with disabilities. We could tackle long-standing infrastructure challenges by restoring parks, improving transit access, greening vacant lots, and strengthening local water and food systems. We could also prepare workers for the clean energy transition by training and deploying teams to retrofit homes, install solar, and build climate resilience – all work that benefits both workers and the city as a whole.
The evidence is clear: when people have access to meaningful, stable work, communities are stronger and more resilient. A job guarantee acts as a stabilizer during economic downturns, ensuring that people can continue contributing rather than being pushed out of the labor market. During periods of growth, it helps fill gaps the private market leaves behind. Either way, it strengthens the broader economy.
Critically, we are already paying the price for inaction. The costs of unemployment in the form of homelessness, health crises, public safety expenditures, and lost tax revenue—place a heavy burden on Michigan’s state and local budgets. A job guarantee doesn’t eliminate costs; it redirects them. Instead of paying for crisis response after families fall behind, we invest upstream in wages, skills, and community well-being. That is not only more humane—it’s more fiscally responsible.
Detroit has an opportunity in 2026 to lead with vision and pragmatism. By launching a Job Guarantee pilot we can test a bold approach that meets people where they are and builds an economy that works for everyone. Our city and its people have the ingenuity, grit, and heart to show what economic justice looks like in practice.
Now is the moment to act.
Senator Stephanie Chang serves Michigan Senate District 3. She is the first Asian American woman elected to the Michigan legislature. She worked as a community organizer in Detroit for nearly a decade before serving two terms in the Michigan House of Representatives and then as the Democratic Floor Leader for her first term in the Senate. She is currently serving her second term in the Michigan Senate and is the Senate Democratic Policy and Steering Chair.
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