Who Will Collect the Trash? How UBI Fixes “5D” Work by Ending the Desperation Trap

By the Basically Income Writing Staff

Note: this article is an abridged take on this much longer article; for a deeper exploration of the same topics, read the full source article here.

Executive Summary: Critics of Universal Basic Income (UBI) often ask a fundamental question: If everyone has a guaranteed income, who will do the essential but unpleasant work? The answer is not that these jobs will disappear, but that the era of filling them through "coercion by desperation" will end. Evidence shows that when people have a safety net, they don’t stop working—they stop accepting exploitation. To get "5D" (Dull, Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult, and Dear) work done in a UBI world, society will have to do something it currently avoids: pay the true cost of essential labor.

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The "5D" Dilemma

"My friend asked: With a Universal Basic Income, who will still collect the garbage or work in the mines?"

It is the most common objection to UBI. It stems from a valid premise: society relies on work that is grueling, hazardous, and exhausting. We classify these roles as "5D" Jobs:

1. Dull: Monotonous tasks like assembly line work or data entry.

2. Dirty: Roles involving exposure to waste, toxins, or filth (e.g., sanitation, meatpacking).

3. Dangerous: Jobs with high injury/fatality risks (e.g., logging, roofing).

4. Difficult: Physically or mentally arduous work (e.g., coal mining, high-stress caregiving).

5. Dear (High-Stakes): Roles where human error is costly (e.g., air traffic control).

Currently, the labor market often fills these roles not by making them attractive, but by relying on workers who have no other choice. This is coercion by desperation.

Historically, labor markets assume that dangerous or unpleasant jobs should command higher pay (a "compensating differential"). In reality, the most vulnerable workers—often minorities and migrants—are forced to accept these risks for poverty wages.

• The Racial Risk Gap: Studies reveal that even when controlling for job type, Black workers receive a risk premium that is only ~60% of what white workers receive for facing the same fatal risks.

• The Safety Gap: The logging industry had a fatality rate of 100.7 per 100,000 workers in 2022, yet wages in such dangerous sectors often fail to reflect the lethal risks involved because the labor pool is treated as replaceable.

UBI changes this dynamic. By providing an unconditional income floor, UBI raises the worker's reservation wage—the minimum pay they require to accept a job. It gives workers the power to say, "No."

The Myth of the Lazy Worker

The fear that UBI will cause a mass exodus from the workforce is not supported by data. Decades of research—from the Negative Income Tax experiments of the 1970s to modern pilots—show that cash transfers do not stop people from working; they enable people to find better work.

Consider the Stockton SEED Trial (2019–2020). Residents receiving $500/month didn't quit their jobs to play video games. Instead, they used the stability to secure better employment.

• Full-time employment among recipients rose from 28% to 40% in just one year.

• In contrast, the control group (who didn't get the cash) only saw a 5% increase.

When the desperation to survive is removed, human motivation shifts. People want to work, contribute, and belong. But under UBI, they are no longer forced to take the first unsafe, underpaid job they find. This forces employers to compete for labor based on quality and compensation, rather than relying on a worker's fear of eviction.

Two Paths for 5D Jobs: Pay Up or Innovate

If workers can say no to bad jobs, employers face a binary choice: make the job better or automate it. Both are wins for society.

1. The Wage Correction (Paying What It Costs)

When essential jobs face a labor shortage, raising wages works. We saw a preview of this dynamic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Baltimore Case Study: In 2020, Baltimore faced a sanitation crisis. Trash was piling up because workers, paid just $11/hour, were quitting rather than risking their health. The city didn't give up on trash collection; they raised wages to $16/hour and added benefits. The result? Retention stabilized, attendance improved, and the trash got collected.

This is the UBI effect in action. If society truly needs a sewer inspector or a roofer, and no one wants to do it for $15/hour, the wage must rise until it meets the "disamenity cost"—the price a worker places on the unpleasantness or risk.

2. Accelerating Automation

If human labor becomes too expensive for "Dull" and "Dirty" jobs, companies will invest in technology. This is a positive outcome. We should want fewer humans in coal mines or sorting garbage.

• The Japan Model: Faced with a labor shortage and an aging population, Japan didn't force the elderly into hard labor; they became a world leader in robotics.

• Economic Evidence: A 2025 study in Nature found that European countries that raised minimum wages saw a corresponding increase in industrial robot installation.

UBI acts as a catalyst. It "prices in" the human cost of 5D jobs, making it more cost-effective for firms to deploy sewer-inspecting robots or autonomous mining trucks, ultimately reducing human exposure to danger.

Policy Implications: Safety is Non-Negotiable

UBI is the foundation, but it must be paired with robust labor standards. A higher reservation wage empowers workers to demand safety, but the government must still enforce it.

• OSHA Enforcement: Currently, the U.S. has approximately 1 OSHA inspector for every 80,000 workers. This is insufficient. We need to increase inspections and penalties to ensure that "higher pay" isn't an excuse for lethal conditions.

• Hazard Pay Standards: We need to normalize the idea that risk requires reward. Policies similar to the proposed COVID-19 "Heroes Fund" could mandate wage floors for high-risk occupations.

• Training Pipelines: For "Dear" and "Difficult" jobs that require high skill (like nursing or high-voltage line repair), UBI allows people the financial breathing room to train. We should support this with free apprenticeships and technical education.

Conclusion: From Coercion to Consent

The transition to a UBI world will not mean dirty jobs go undone. It means they will be done by people who are properly equipped, properly compensated, and there by choice.

Currently, we subsidize the low cost of essential services with the bodies and health of the poor. We get cheap lettuce and cheap trash pickup because we rely on people who have no other options. UBI ends this subsidy.

Yes, this means the price of some services may rise to reflect their true cost. But the alternative—maintaining a labor market driven by poverty and fear—is a moral failure and a safety hazard. When a worker is exhausted, stressed about bills, and terrified of losing their job, they are less safe and less effective.

UBI flips the script. Instead of asking, "How do we force people to do unpleasant work?", we ask, "What package of pay, respect, and safety will attract the people for whom this work is a good fit?"

The Bottom Line: If a job is truly essential, we must pay for it. If it is truly dangerous, we must protect those who do it. UBI ensures that "essential" never again means "exploitable."

Works Cited

AFL-CIO. Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 2024. AFL-CIO, 23 Apr. 2024, https://aflcio.org/reports/dotj-2024.

Dorman, Peter, and Les Boden. Risk without Reward: The Myth of Wage Compensation for Hazardous Work. Economic Policy Institute, 19 Apr. 2021, https://files.epi.org/uploads/217414.pdf.

Garland, John, et al. “Perspectives on Forest Operations Safety.” NIOSH Blogs, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Oct. 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/blogs/2024/forest-operations.html.

Round, Ian, and Mark Reutter. “Facing a Garbage Pileup, Young Administration Ups the Pay of Sanitation Workers.” Baltimore Brew, 9 Nov. 2020, https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2020/11/09/facing-a-garbage-pileup-young-administration-ups-pay-of-sanitation-workers/.

Sharfaei, Shahab, and Jakkrit Thavorn. “From Wages to Widgets: How Minimum Wage Hikes Fuel Automation.” Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, vol. 12, art. 761, 4 June 2025, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-05039-9.

Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED). “Employment.” SEED, n.d., https://www.stocktondemonstration.org/employment.