Conventional economic frameworks systematically undervalue care and support work, mislabelling it as “unproductive” despite its essential role in sustaining human life and social stability. This invisibility leads to profound gender inequalities, with women performing 76.2% of unpaid care work globally, i.e. 3.2 times more than men. This devaluation manifests as a systemic economic injustice and a “motherhood penalty” that extends across the life cycle, trapping caregivers in cycles of financial hardship and time poverty. The Universal Care Income (UCI) is proposed as a “participation income” tied to engagement in life-sustaining activities. These activities encompass direct personal care, support for persons with disabilities to ensure independent living, and “care for the planet,” such as regenerative farming and the defence of the environment. Where the dependency of the person being cared for reaches certain thresholds the UCI should encompass formal employment, access to training ,and the opportunity to collectively bargain over their work conditions.
Contrasting with a Universal Basic Income (UBI), the UCI explicitly rewards active contributions to social and ecological reproduction. Practical models that prefigure this approach include Bogotá’s “Care Blocks” and the proposed 2025 US Worker Relief and Credit Reform (WRCR) Act. UCI transforms care from an invisible private obligation into a formally recognised and remunerated social contribution. It addresses the historical “care debt” owed to women and marginalised groups while validating self-care as a fundamental human right . By including environmental care, it recognises land stewardship as vital maintenance work that sustains the planetary ecosystem. This policy advances the eradication of poverty beyond growth by centring human and planetary well-being over GDP. It reduces exploitation by decoupling livelihood from market-driven devaluations. Funded through progressive taxes on wealth and financial transactions, or through active monetary policy and public money creation, UCI expands the fiscal space to meet human needs without relying on aggregate economic growth. Ultimately, it aims to redistribute power, providing caregivers of every gender, including Indigenous and other human rights defenders, with the recognition and material security to refuse exploitative labour, benefit from social protection and engage in socially meaningful activity. At the same time, a Universal Care Income must be designed differently across Global North and Global South contexts, and accompanied by childcare, public services, and workplace reforms, so that it expands women’s agency and care recognition without reinforcing gendered expectations that they remain at home.
