Amazon and Walmart Use your tax dollars to Subsidize Poverty Wages

‍More Perfect Union's recent investigation reveals an uncomfortable reality: some of the biggest welfare recipients in America aren't individuals — they're corporations. Amazon and Walmart, two of the nation's most profitable companies, have built business models that depend on taxpayer-funded assistance to supplement the poverty wages they pay their workers.

‍

These companies aren’t  receiving checks from the government. They’re doing something more efficient: paying poverty wages and letting taxpayers pick up the rest.

‍

How SNAP Became a Wage Subsidy

‍

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was designed as a safety net for people facing temporary hardship. Now a permanent fixture in the business models of America’s largest employers.

‍

A February 2026 More Perfect Union investigation found that Walmart and Amazon employ tens of thousands of workers who rely on SNAP just to afford food. These aren't unemployed people or workers between jobs — they're working, often full-time. When wages are kept low enough to qualify workers for public assistance, the government covers food costs. Corporations can keep labor cheap, and profits stay high.

‍

Walmart’s Double Dip: Low Wages In, SNAP Dollars Out

‍

Walmart doesn’t just underpay workers. It profits directly from SNAP.

‍

The company is the largest SNAP retailer in the U.S., receiving 25.8% of all SNAP dollars spent nationwide. That means Walmart pays wages so low that workers qualify for food assistance. And then it captures those same taxpayer dollars at checkout.

‍

One Walmart worker interviewed by More Perfect Union highlighted how they have to go hungry for 6+ hours while being surrounded by food. They summed up the lived reality of this system in just two sharp words: “It’s torturing.”

‍

State data underscores how widespread this is:

‍

• Illinois: Over 4,500 employees on SNAP
• Michigan: 2,140 workers relying on SNAP
• Colorado: 1,934 employees who are SNAP recipients

‍

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s a feedback loop.

‍

Amazon’s Full-Time Workers Still Can’t Afford Food

‍

Amazon’s story is no less stark.

‍

A 2023 survey of Amazon warehouse workers across 42 states found that 33% had used public assistance programs in the previous three months. Even more telling is the fact that 89% of those workers were employed full-time, according to Internal Revenue Service standards.

‍

One grocery worker featured in Perfect Union’s reporting described what that looks like on the ground: “By the time I get off work on Sundays, I have not eaten in 12 hours.”

‍

These are full-time workers doing physically demanding labor. Yet they have to rely on public assistance to meet basic needs. All while Amazon reports nearly $350 billion in annual revenue.

‍

This Is Corporate Welfare, Plain and Simple

‍

Perfect Union’s investigation also identifies other repeat offenders like McDonald’s, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, DoorDash, and Uber. Many of them rely on part-time labor, worker misclassification, or aggressive lobbying to avoid providing stable wages and benefits.

‍

The outcome is predictable: workers struggle, public assistance fills the gap, and corporations pocket the savings.

‍

This isn’t a broken system. It’s a system working exactly as designed for shareholders.

‍

The Real Question Taxpayers Should Be Asking

‍

Why are citizens subsidizing billion-dollar corporations that refuse to pay workers enough to eat? SNAP keeps workers alive, but it also props up a low-wage economy where profits are privatized and survival costs are socialized. More Perfect Union has documented the reality. What remains is the political will to stop calling this “welfare” and start calling it what it is: corporate subsidy by design.