A JG controls wage growth --- ensures an employed buffer stock that provides a wage floor

(L. Randall, Levy Economics Institute, “Job Guarantee,” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, pg online @ https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_3080-1 //um-ef)

An unemployed buffer stock (‘reserve army of the unemployed’) is supposed to work in a similar manner: with a large body of unemployed workers, employers can refuse demands for wage increases by threatening to hire replacement workers from among the unemployed. However, the unemployed buffer stock is not very effective at setting a wage floor. Since the unemployed do not have jobs, their wage is zero—meaning the floor wage is zero. However, the lower limit to wages will actually be above zero for three reasons: there will be some limit above zero because no one would work without a nonzero wage, there may be an effective minimum wage law in place, and there is likely some social assistance available to those without jobs so employers need to pay a positive wage to induce workers to move off welfare and into jobs. Supporters of the JG argue that the employed buffer stock is more effective in stabilizing wages. Not only does it establish a firm wage floor, but it also attenuates wage inflation more effectively. The unemployed buffer stock will tend to consist disproportionately of workers with less education, skills, and experience—just like the employed buffer stock. However, the employed buffer stock have the advantage that they are working. All else equal, employers prefer to hire those who are already working—who are demonstrating at least some work readiness. Further, their skills can be maintained on the job and may even be enhanced if there is training on the job. By contrast, those who are unemployed may be thought to be losing skills and perhaps developing undesirable behaviours. As time spent in unemployment grows, workers are perceived as less employable, and their probability of obtaining a job falls. It is well established that long term unemployment is associated with development of a variety of health and social problems. For these reasons, advocates of the JG argue that the employed buffer stock is actually more effective.