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

WASHINGTON, July 22 - 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.

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