Embedded Employment

A 2026 Democratic Party Platform

Embedded Employment,EE,addresses a few social challenges today.

  1. AI impact on employment.
  2. Recession
  3. Social Security
  4. Minimum wage.

Definition

Embedded Employment treats every adult as employed.

2026 Embedded Employment Program

  1. The Federal government pays every adult citizen a tax-free $2,000/month embedded employment salary.
  2. Employers reimburse the $2,000/month to the Federal Government before paying wages. Say someone makes $50k annually, about $4k monthly. This person would receive $2k per month from the Federal government. The Employer pays the Federal government that same $2k. The wages above the $2k monthly Embedded Employment payments are then paid to the employee.
  3. Social Security is combined with Embedded Employment. All Social Security has the $2k monthly deducted. If Social Security monthly payments would be less than $2k monthly then Embedded Employment at $2k monthly is the only payment.
  4. Embedded Employment replaces Unemployment.

The Math

Embedded employment would cost $1 trillion dollars to employ all adults regardless of age and ability. Long story short, after subtracting employed Americans, Americans on Social Security, and American minors then EE funds 45 million Americans at an annual budget of $1 trillion.

Figure 1: Embedded Employment Math

embdded_employment_mathDownload

In the Embedded Employment spreadsheet table the left column shows US population factors. The initial factor is the total US population at 340 million. Paying everyone $2k monthly requires $8.2 trillion. The next factor are employed US citizens at 150 million. This number assumes everyone is making at least $2k monthly. The 150 million employed Americans totals $3.6 trillion in reimbursements to the Federal government resulting in a net $4.6 trillion in EE payments. Next we have the US population factor of 72 million Americans on Social Security who today are paid on average $2k monthly. This is where the $2k monthly figure was derived. This subtracts another $1.7 trillion from the previous $4.6 trillion leaving a net annual payment of $2.8 trillion. Now, if we wanted to include children in the EE annual budget this is what it would cost. However, the 2026 EE program only considers adults. So the final US population factor subtracts the 73 million minors. Subtracting the 73 million minors subtracts $1.8 trillion from the previous $2.8 trillion leaves just $1.1 trillion for 45 million Americans.

How are we going to pay for this $1.1 trillion? Well, unless we want to continue to pay for wars simply because our $1 trillion annual budget needs justification then I recommend we cut that military budget by 3/4, to $250 billion. We would then fund the remaining $250 billion.

Universal Basic Income versus Embedded Employment

As Donald Rumsfeld said, you have to go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had. You implement social programs with the culture you have, not the culture you wish you had. Americans value work above all else. Embedded Employment satisfies our American need for work whereas UBI is maligned as socialism.

Americans need to reconcile working for free such as volunteering for charity with slave wages or wage theft. Embedded employment addresses volunteering for charity the same as it does paying a non-living wage like say $7/hour. The $7/hour wage is roughly $50/day, $250/week, and $1k/month. Employers would pay that $1/month to the Federal government. The Federal government then pays $2k/monthly to these $7/hour workers. So, why would employers pay any wage? Because it’s the law. Minimum wage laws exist. This is no different than tax laws. If a corporation wanted to avoid paying wages then they would have to structure a non-profit. I don’t see fast food joints forgoing profits.

The $2k/month is a poverty level existence. People don’t want to live in poverty. If there are job opportunities to earn more than people will do that.

AI employment chaos

AI is already realizing millions are being laid off. The AI promoters say the same thing every other automation promoter has said over the last century: labor markets will adjust. Perhaps. EE provides a tangible program to manage that chaos in any case. If AI jobs exceed current employment numbers then fewer people will net Embedded Employment dollars.

Government overhead reduction

Social Security, Disability, and Unemployment are just three programs that can be dramatically scaled back, or in the case of Unemployment, eliminated.

Salary versus benefit

Embedded Employment is a salary paid to all adult citizens. It is not a benefit. This default salary will encourage small businesses that can afford to pay only a fraction of EE salary. This salary works side-by-side with other salary insurance such as Workman’s Compensation for workplace injuries. It also works side-by-side with retirement plans of risk that invest in the financial markets. EE creates a work narrative where everyone is employed and society has a maximal workforce to draw from.

Federal versus State program

The last thing we need is to add another $1 trillion to the Federal corruption pile. The responsible thing would be to implement this at the State and Local level. I’m thinking perhaps that State and Local governments implement EE to the best of their abilities. If Local government fails then fall back to State governments. If State governments fail then fall back to Federal. Sadly, that kind of fall back budgeting is not a thing today.

Everyone has a million dollars

Conservatives often argue that if everyone has a million dollars then a million dollars becomes worthless. This same argument could be made of EE. However, EE initially only impacts 45 million Americans. Further, EE encourages employment by covering lower than EE monthly salary. This has the potential to increase the number of Americans working for wages as small businesses are invigorated. Home businesses have built in wages. People can feel good about paying back the EE monthly as part of the success reward for growing the business. Obviously I don’t know but I think the argument can easily be made that price inflation would be minimal.

Rollout

This should be tried at the State level first. Perhaps the plan should be to roll this out with both timeline milestones and benchmark milestones. Plan for say a ten-year countrywide rollout against benchmarks of financial performance that satisfy financial stability in financial markets and social welfare.