New GAO Report Finds Taxpayers Continue to Subsidize Poverty Wages at Walmart, Amazon, Other Large Corporations as Corporate Welfare Spikes Since 2020

Editor’s note: Senator Sanders has discussed this issue in the past, particularly as it relates to large corporations making record profits while their workers are not paid a fair or in some cases livable wage. Needing to receive SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits in order to put food on the table or make ends meet, or obtaining health insurance subsidized by taxpayers when employers – especially such large, record-profit-making ones as those mentioned below – are legally required by the Affordable Care Act to provide their employees with health insurance.  In most cases, the employees have to pay a portion, with the worst and least covering plans being the cheapest, so if the employee doesn’t make enough money to pay for a good plan, they will often forego it.  Then they may apply for government subsidized healthcare, or they may apply for low-cost or no-cost health insurance through one of the many community health centers throughout the city.  Such institutions generally charge a $10 office visit copay or payment, along with prescription coverage for generic medications and blood tests ordered by the doctor, generally for $5 each.  Most low-income people want to have healthcare in the event that they need it (and if they have kids there are strict rules for them), so they will use one of these services.  However, working full-time for Amazon, Walmart, Kroegers, and delivery apps should provide a living wage.  Otherwise, one is always spinning their wheels, only digging deeper into debt as the paycheck they receive doesn’t cover all their expenses, and they also don’t get raises when the company makes profits – apparently only the CEOs and highest-level officials receive any benefit from the increase in profits.  Such increases in profits are, generally speaking, the result of the human labor provided by the workers, and the CEO and other high-level positions generally have little to do with actually generating the company’s product or service. So it makes a strange kind of circle where the input is increasing at the bottom, and all of the gains that the company generates are given to those at the very top. Low income people also die seven years earlier, on average, than those in higher income brackets, a testament to wealth and healthcare inequality. In another demonstration of this same kind of mentality and circle of vice, the CEO of a hospital system was alleged to have drained funds intended for the operating costs of their member nursing homes to buy private jets, yachts, and other expensive items.  At the same time, caregivers were forced to operate without essential items until finally the nursing homes were forced to file for bankruptcy because they could no longer pay their debts or operating costs.  Regarding Amazon, the Staten Island warehouse employees have been spearheading a campaign for unionization, with a recent vote in favor reached by many workers at the site, which is alleged to have some safety issues as well.  

WASHINGTON – According to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, some of the largest and most profitable American corporations and their wealthy CEOs continue to pay their employees wages so low that those workers are forced to rely on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — subsidized by U.S taxpayers — to survive.

Commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and released today by the GAO, this report analyzes data from 11 states comprising nearly a fifth of the U.S. population, builds on the findings of a 2020 GAO report, and details how the number of workers relying on Medicaid and SNAP has grown significantly over the past six years. Across 11 states, the report found that an estimated 13.8 million working Americans were forced to enroll in Medicaid and 10.6 million depended on SNAP to make ends meet and feed their families, despite working full-time — up from 12 million and 9 million, respectively, in the 2020 report.

“American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations like Walmart and Amazon. These corporations are making record-breaking profits, paying their CEOs exorbitant compensation packages and spending billions of dollars on stock buybacks to enrich their wealthy shareholders. It is beyond unacceptable that these corporations, owned by some of the wealthiest people on the planet, are receiving corporate welfare from the federal government,” Sanders said. “It is time for the Walton family, worth $485 billion, and Mr. Bezos, worth $257 billion, to get off of welfare and pay their workers a living wage with good benefits. No one who works for a company making billions in profits should be living in poverty. This is especially true after these corporations and their multibillionaire owners received a massive tax break from President Trump’s so-called ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ paid for by the largest cuts to Medicaid and nutrition assistance in history.”

GAO’s report found that Walmart, Amazon and other large, profitable corporations have particularly egregious records of forcing workers to utilize Medicaid and SNAP:

• Despite increasing its annual profits from $14.88 billion to $21.89 billion during this period, Walmart employed 16,055 workers who had to rely on Medicaid in the states GAO sampled — a 55% increase from the previous report. Walmart also employed 15,515 workers who needed SNAP assistance in the states GAO sampled. Overall, Walmart again ranked among the top employers of workers on these programs in every one of the 11 states.
• Despite increasing its annual profits from $11.59 billion to $77.67 billion, Amazon employed 12,346 workers who needed SNAP assistance and 11,338 workers who had to rely on Medicaid in the states GAO sampled — nearly triple the number of Amazon workers who needed federal assistance compared to the previous report.
• FedEx, which made $4.33 billion in profit, saw its workers on Medicaid more than triple (from 1,046 to 3,814) and its SNAP workers nearly double (from 2,622 to 4,944) since the first report, in the states GAO sampled.

The GAO also found that rideshare and delivery companies now rank among the very top employers of program recipients in several states — along with McDonald’s, Dollar General, Dollar Tree and FedEx.

In February, Sanders requested that four major corporations that employ large numbers of people who rely on Medicaid and SNAP – Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree – answer how much they expect to make from the Republicans’ tax breaks and whether any of these savings will be passed along to their workers.

Across nine states (Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington), these corporations and sectors employed the following numbers of SNAP recipients in the GAO report:

1. Rideshare/Delivery apps – 22,709
2. Walmart – 15,515
3. Amazon – 12,346
4. McDonald’s – 6,709
5. Dollar General – 5,187
6. FedEx – 4,944
7. Dollar Tree – 4,229
8. Kroger – 3,302
9. Burger King – 2,186
10. Family Dollar – 1,933
11. Walgreens – 1,747
12. Target – 1,695
13. Home Depot – 1,633
14. Taco Bell – 1,569

Across six states (Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Rhode Island), these corporations and sectors employed the following numbers of Medicaid enrollees in the GAO report:

1. Walmart – 16,055
2. Amazon – 11,338
3. Rideshare/Delivery apps – 6,120
4. Dollar General – 5,601
5. McDonald’s – 4,710
6. FedEx – 3,814
7. Dollar Tree – 3,265
8. Kroger – 2,818
9. Target – 2,326
10. Home Depot – 1,985
11. Family Dollar – 1,845
12. Stop & Shop – 1,691
13. Walgreens – 1,300
14. CVS – 1,209

Read the full report here.

Senator Sanders: We live in two Americas

Banner Image: We live in two Americas.  Image Credit – Sen. Sanders