What Is Work For? Labor, Politics, and Meaning in the Age of AI

Using an original cross-national survey of 8,234 working-age adults in the UK, US, Denmark, and India, this paper finds that 81% of respondents are satisfied with their job and that a majority are strongly motivated by non-monetary components of employment, with one third motivated intrinsically, nearly a quarter by social and community aspects, 17% by social status, and just over a quarter by transactional financial benefits. Although a majority would leave their role if offered their current salary as guaranteed income, one fifth would stay even at up to 120% of their salary, and intrinsically motivated workers were disproportionately likely to refuse a basic income at any substitution level. The author argues that guaranteeing a basic income may be necessary for managing a future AI labor shock but could fail to compensate workers for lost non-monetary benefits from work.