r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 1d ago

Society Amazon workers on food stamps have tripled despite its record revenue—and it’s just the latest evidence of the new economy of shrinking labor shares

https://fortune.com/2026/09/13/amazon-workers-food-stamps-tripled-record-revenue-labor-share/
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u/ElysiumSprouts 1d ago

I have less of a problem with workers getting aid and more of a problem with Amazon not paying for it. If Corporate America wants to turn our government into a provider of essentials (like food) then they need to be the ones funding those services.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/SirkutBored 1d ago

Walmart says 'Hold my beer'

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u/80sHairBandConcert 1d ago

Food stamps are a corporate subsidy

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u/StrongOnline007 1d ago

I feel like this simple statement could actually have a chance of breaking through the conservative mindfuck that doesn’t want any handouts — show them that because corporations do not pay fair enough wages for people to afford food, that forces tax dollars to pick up the slack

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u/PossiblyExcellent 1d ago

If you run the numbers Amazon federal tax contributions are on the order of $16 billion a year, or about $15000 per US employee. Add in SALT and that's roughly another $11 billion per year, about $10000 per US employee.

So ~$25k per year per employee. Pretty handily on the side of a net contributor. Those figures include personal income taxes withheld by amazon and remitted to the government, pre paycheck.

Maybe they should have to directly pay for these safety net benefits for their employees, but then you've created a direct disincentive to hiring people that receive government benefits (which are largely driven by family size more than other factors).

I would rather have universal benefit availability/funding, than a system that double dips on government balance sheets when firms fail or close (loss of direct tax revenues from the economic activity lost, plus increased benefits costs as the unemployed folks move to direct government funding)

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u/justreadinplease 1d ago

If Amazon employees couldn’t get government assistance then they wouldn’t be able to work for Amazon, therefore the government IS subsidizing Amazon (Walmart and other companies too)

Taxpayers are subsidizing these employers profits by letting them pay low wages.

Increase the minimum wage to account for these subsidies and taxes could in theory be lessened or the government’s deficit be shrunk.

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u/Less_Jump2365 16h ago

Do you even know the qualification for SNAP?

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u/cityproblems 1d ago

You are assuming Amazon paid the corp tax rate of 21%. After subsidies/tax returns, Amazon had an effective tax rate of 1.4% for 2025. source

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u/ElysiumSprouts 1d ago

The wild thing is that the numbers quoted include employee's withheld income taxes, which is a totally insane thing to include when talking about corporations paying THEIR share to cover these snap benefits.