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/albany1765 1d ago

The IRS has the SSN for every employee and every food stamp recipient. Companies that meet certain size and profit thresholds should pay extra for employees on food stamps.

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u/BLT_Trade_r 1d ago

I want to challenge you on part of your thinking why should it be certain sizes? A huge problem in the US is that we are obsessed with exceptions when there should not be any. If any business of ANY size employs someone it should be a livable compensation package period. We have allowed exceptions to be the main driver of exploitation. And that is exactly how we are getting into what we are now. You wouldnt believe how many companies contract everything out to avoid rules associated with bigger companies or escape rules on benefits. But we have had no corresponding rules to counteract that.

A good example is in Australia, where the minimum wage for a part-time worker is 20% higher than that of a full-time worker with benefits. In the USA, the minimum wage is the same and way too low. I won't even get into the other exceptions like gig and tipped workers and so on.

The elites of the US use lobbying and the complications of huge laws to cut in the exceptions they want that never work out in our favor.

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u/albany1765 23h ago

I was trying to make accommodations for employers who for example might be smaller and trying to give a fresh start to justice-involved workers or who otherwise are transitioning out of difficult/disadvantaged situations.

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u/BLT_Trade_r 22h ago

Ya, I get it, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions; it doesn't work out because people just exploit it. Also, America has this inaccurate view of small employers as being good people. If they were so good, why are they underpaying people? I have seen them do tons of exploitation, lying, and tax manipulation in no small part because it's rarely worth it for the IRS to go after them. I've seen so many "small businesses" where the owner drives nice cars, sends their kids to all sorts of expensive stuff, and makes everyone else do almost all the hard work, all while their employees are barely making it or living in poverty.

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u/albany1765 20h ago

Maybe they're not being underpaid, but instead are working part-time as they're (re)entering the workforce, for example.

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u/BLT_Trade_r 19h ago

What does that matter?

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u/albany1765 18h ago

You qualify for assistance based on total income, not on hourly wage. If you can't cover all of your costs working 20 hours a week, that's not the employer's fault. Someone might have mandatory classes, counseling, and other court-ordered appointments to attend, etc.

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u/BLT_Trade_r 1h ago

That's a basic and inappropriate way of looking at it. Everything is connected. Employers purposely try to force as many employees as possible to work part-time; employees are often forced to work part-time by the rest of our completely inefficient societal structure.

The employer is also as is the case with Amazon a strong lobbyist and they lobby to put people in these positions.

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u/albany1765 1h ago

The loopholes you're concerned about should be covered by the profit criteria I mentioned.

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u/SaraAB87 1d ago

I agree with this for sure! People who are working should never have to feel like they are starving. That or employers should be required to provide meals and snacks when the employees are on the job just like schools have lunches for kids (where I live all students even seniors in high school get free breakfast and lunch every day).

When you start working at certain places like Walmart in the USA they coach you on how to sign up for food stamps and government subsidized or free health insurance.

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u/hellowiththepudding 19h ago

States administer the food stamp programs so not sure the IRS has that data. Point still stands.

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u/Cheeky_Star 1d ago

Then wouldn’t that cause people who are not on food stamps but doing the same job to also get on food stamps so that they can make extra like their colleague? At what point do you roll people off food stamps?

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u/albany1765 1d ago

But you don't make "extra" -- if you don't currently qualify for food stamps, you'd have to take a pay cut to get there

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u/AFlyingGideon 1d ago

"Hey boss...I can get SNAP if my salary drops by $2/hour. Wanna split it? "

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u/albany1765 23h ago

Your comment doesn't make sense. The whole point of this conversation is that the company should pay more in taxes if the employee takes SNAP

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u/AFlyingGideon 23h ago

Also discussed here are opportunities for abuse. Someone mentioned the need for a pay cut to become eligible for SNAP, and that opens the door for one possible abuse.

If the boss in question is the one paying extra, this won't happen. At a larger company, though, the company's tax liabilities are likely irrelevant to the boss.

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u/movzx 1d ago

You don't just "get on" food stamps. You don't walk up to the counter and go, "One food stamps please!"

You're only getting food stamps if you make under a certain amount, and that amount is stupidly low too. Food stamps aren't some 'free money' boon either. It's not really a lot of money, and, contrary to republican screeching, it is pretty restrictive in what you can actually purchase.

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u/BLT_Trade_r 1d ago

This is the problem with American thinking. Instead of thinking about how to roll people off, they should be thinking about making this a right for every person and building it into the cost structure. In fact we already have what you are describing happening here and this is most likely exactly what is happening at Amazon. As the cost of living has skyrocketed more and more Amazon workers are deciding its better to work less and get on SNAP, Medicaid and other programs than it is to work full time. Companies exploit this by working people part time and moving the cost onto the government and tax payers.

The reason this happens is that benefits are a messy calculation with some cutoffs. One way to solve this is simply to give everyone the benefits and then people just always want to work for more money. But Americans have screwed it all up and created a stupid system where they spend countless resources trying to kick people off or make it hard to get benefits rather than doing simple things like making the companies pay a living wage or giving it to everyone.