Fragility by proxy: Unconditional cash & care work in a Los Angeles micro-pilot

In the United States, racialized women are disproportionately responsible for unpaid care work and occupationally segregated into the paid care industry. Despite the importance of their labor, they are often devalued, resulting in poor compensation and exploitative working conditions that erode their health and well-being. For familial caregivers, this is compounded by gendered and cultural notions which demand their caring labor because of love and duty. Scholars have theorized that unconditional cash interventions, such as guaranteed income (GI), may provide caregivers with the resources to better support themselves, achieve autonomy, and reject oppressive and disadvantageous social structures. This paper draws on narrative data from participants in a GI micro-pilot in Los Angeles County, one of the first studies exploring the impacts of GI on familial caregivers in the United States. Participants experienced ‘fragility by proxy,’ or poor well-being due to financial strain and pressures to serve as primary caregivers for their families. The GI alleviated stressors related to housing and care-related costs, and gave participants greater autonomy to prioritize self-care, thereby resisting the burnout and dehumanization associated with capitalism. However, the GI was insufficient in fully countering gendered and cultural caregiving scripts and facilitating participants' autonomy to decide how they structured their caring responsibilities. Instead, it dampened the burden of care work and functioned as an inflection point for participants on their relationship to the market.