Compare & Plan
Universal Basic Income (UBI) Calculator
See what a hypothetical UBI would add to your monthly income, stacked on top of your actual paycheck’s FICA-based take-home. No UBI program exists in U.S. federal law today — this is a “what if” scenario tool, not a forecast of enacted policy.
Informational only — not financial advice. Universal Basic Income is not current U.S. federal law; this models a hypothetical scenario using an amount you choose. FICA figures on your paycheck are exact per IRS Publication 15. Does not include federal or state income tax withholding on either amount.
No Universal Basic Income program exists at the U.S. federal level today. This models a hypothetical scenario — your paycheck’s FICA deductions, plus a UBI amount you choose, added on top with no FICA applied (a UBI would be a government cash transfer, not employer wages).
Enter your gross pay to see your take-home combined with a hypothetical UBI.
How this calculator works
Why build this if no UBI program exists?
UBI discussions in the U.S. are real, ongoing, and largely notional at the federal level — proposals have come from policy researchers, business leaders, and past presidential campaigns, but none has become law. This tool exists to let you model “what would my monthly income look like if a UBI of this size existed” using your real paycheck numbers as the baseline, the same way our Raise Impact Calculator models a hypothetical raise. It does not predict, endorse, or forecast any specific policy outcome.
Step 1 — Your paycheck’s FICA and net pay
The calculator runs your entered gross pay through the same FICA engine as every other StubTrue tool:
- Social Security: 6.2% on wages up to the 2026 annual wage base of $184,500 (SSA.gov).
- Medicare: 1.45% on all FICA-taxable wages, no ceiling (IRS Publication 15).
- Additional Medicare Tax: an extra 0.9% once combined FICA-taxable wages for the year exceed $200,000, applied when YTD wages are entered.
Your per-paycheck net pay is annualized at the pay frequency you select (weekly × 52, biweekly × 26, semi-monthly × 24, monthly × 12, or annual as entered) and divided by 12 for a monthly-equivalent figure, the same exact-arithmetic approach used by the Hourly to Salary Calculator.
Step 2 — The hypothetical UBI amount
You choose the monthly UBI amount — either the $1,000/month preset, a reference point from Andrew Yang’s 2020 “Freedom Dividend” presidential campaign proposal (Tax Foundation), or a custom amount. That figure is added directly to your monthly and annual totals with no FICA applied. See the FAQ below for why.
What this calculator doesn’t cover
Federal and state income tax. Not calculated on your paycheck or on the UBI amount — this is StubTrue’s standard scope limit, and it matters even more here since no enacted UBI legislation exists to define how it would actually be taxed.
Funding mechanisms and benefit offsets. Real UBI proposals often involve new taxes (e.g., a value-added tax) or require giving up other benefits like SNAP or SSI. This calculator only models the income side, not the tradeoffs.
Mid-year Social Security cap crossover. Like our other pay-frequency tools, this multiplies a single paycheck’s FICA result across the year rather than simulating every paycheck individually — if your earnings would cross the SS wage base mid-year, the annual total is an approximation. Use the Social Security Cap Tracker for that detail.
Last reviewed: June 2026
Frequently asked questions
Does the United States have a Universal Basic Income program?
No. As of 2026, there is no country-wide UBI in the United States, and no such program has been enacted into federal law. UBI proposals have come from members of the social policy community, business world, and technology industry, but remain notional at the federal level. Source: Congressional Research Service, "Universal Basic Income Proposals for the United States."
Where does the $1,000/month preset amount come from?
It's a reference point from the "Freedom Dividend," a proposal from Andrew Yang's 2020 presidential campaign to pay every American adult $1,000 a month, funded in part by a proposed value-added tax. It was never enacted. The calculator includes it as a familiar starting point — you can change it to model any amount.
Would a real UBI payment be taxed the same way as my paycheck?
This calculator doesn't apply FICA (Social Security and Medicare) to the UBI amount, because a UBI would be a government cash transfer rather than employer-paid wages, which is what FICA taxes under 26 U.S.C. § 3121(a). The closest real-world analog, the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, works the same way — no FICA, though it is subject to federal income tax. How an actual U.S. UBI would be taxed depends entirely on how it's enacted, which hasn't happened.
Does this calculator include federal or state income tax?
No — on your paycheck or on the hypothetical UBI amount. StubTrue covers paycheck stub math (FICA, deductions, net take-home) only, not income tax withholding calculations. This tool is purely a scenario model, not a projection of what any enacted policy would look like after taxes.
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