From Futurism · Joe Wilkins · · 1m 30s
Amazon's $77 billion payroll assist
Amazon profits ballooned to $77.7 billion while the number of its workers on food stamps nearly tripled.
In brief
Amazon profits ballooned to $77.7 billion while the number of its workers on food stamps nearly tripled. When a profitable employer's workers need SNAP and Medicaid to eat and see a doctor, taxpayers are quietly covering part of that payroll. Originally reported by Futurism.
Prime runs like a utility
After two decades, Amazon Prime moves more parcels than the US Postal Service and delivers to small business owners, tradespeople, and teachers at record speed.
“more akin to a public utility than a private company”
The taxpayer pays part of it
Utilities come with a public price tag. Amazon's version is a state subsidy funded by taxpayers across the country, propping up the wages it pays.
Triple the workers on aid
Fortune reported that Amazon workers on SNAP and Medicaid nearly tripled between 2020 and 2025. Over the same stretch, annual profit went from $11.6 billion to $77.7 billion.
The numbers behind it
GAO data found 12,346 Amazon workers in 11 states using SNAP for groceries, plus 11,338 on Medicaid. Without those programs, the lowest paid could not make ends meet.
Amazon has company
The GAO survey put Amazon consistently among the top employers of adult SNAP and Medicaid enrollees, alongside Walmart, Uber, McDonald's, and Dollar General.
Working full time, still short
Nearly 14 million working adults were on Medicaid in 2024 and 10.6 million got SNAP. Of the grocery aid recipients, 71.3 percent, about 7.5 million people, worked 35 hours or more a week.
“these are families that are really barely able to make ends meet, and yet they are working, and they are working a lot”
What it means
When a profitable employer's workers need SNAP and Medicaid to eat and see a doctor, taxpayers are quietly covering part of that payroll.
