(CNN) — A growing number of Amazon and gig economy workers earn so little that they rely on public assistance to put food on the table and obtain health coverage, a Government Accountability Office study released Wednesday found.
The report is yet another example of the affordability crisis affecting many in the United States, where even some employed Americans need government help to pay for basic needs like food and healthcare.
The number of Amazon employees receiving food stamps and Medicaid in September nearly tripled since the GAO’s previous report in 2020, according to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who requested both analyses. Nearly 12,350 Amazon staffers were enrolled in food stamps and nearly 11,350 were covered by Medicaid in the states GAO examined.
Meanwhile, rideshare and food delivery companies are now among the top employers of recipients in the two safety net programs in several states, which was not the case five years earlier. Those companies include Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub and Instacart.
GAO analyzed data from 11 states where nearly one-fifth of Americans reside. It found that Walmart was one of the top employers of workers receiving these benefits in all the states examined, as it was in 2020. Meanwhile, the number of FedEx staffers on Medicaid more than tripled and on food stamps nearly double over the period.
“No one who works for a company making billions in profits should be living in poverty,” Sanders, who has long called out major corporations for not paying their workforce a living wage, said in a statement.
Amazon said the conclusions drawn from the report are wrong, arguing that its pay scale is among the best in the industry and that its regular, full-time employees have access to health insurance on their first day for $5 a week for individual coverage.
“Eligibility for both SNAP and Medicaid is based on total household income and family size, not individual wages or benefits – so employers that offer part-time options for those who want them, like we do, are likely to have more people who are eligible,” Rachael Lighty, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement.
One of the country’s largest employers, Amazon has expanded its workforce since the Covid-19 pandemic began. It announced in late 2025 a $1 billion investment to boost pay and reduce healthcare costs for its fulfillment and transportation employees in the US, increasing the average base pay to more than $23 an hour.
Walmart, which is America’s largest private employer, with many entry-level staffers, has increased its starting wages for associates by 93% since 2015, according to the company. Associates make $18 an hour, on average.
CNN has reached out to FedEx and Flex, an industry group for ridesharing and delivery apps.
Employed but still in need of assistance
GAO, which also looked at 2024 Census data, found that nearly 14 million adults who worked at some point that year were enrolled in Medicaid, and 10.6 million adults lived in households that received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the formal name for food stamps. They mostly worked full-time schedules, and a majority worked in one of five occupations, including transportation and food preparation and serving.
In 2020, about 12 million wage-earning adults were covered by Medicaid, and 9 million received food stamps, according to the earlier GAO report, which looked at Census data from the prior year.
To qualify for food stamps, applicants must earn less than 130% of the federal poverty level, or about $42,000 a year for a family of four. (Some states have higher income limits.) Medicaid recipients can earn no more than 138% of the federal poverty limit, or about $22,000 for an individual, though some states that did not expand the program to low-income adults have lower income thresholds.
The GAO report comes as tens of millions of food stamp and Medicaid recipients will be required to work – or volunteer, go to school or enroll in job training programs – at least 80 hours a month to maintain their eligibility as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he signed into law last summer. Republicans have argued that the work mandate will help low-income Americans become more self-sufficient and escape poverty, while critics of the requirement say it will lead to more people being hungry and uninsured.
The expansion of existing work requirements in SNAP has already kicked in and has contributed to millions of recipients losing their benefits, according to advocates. The first-ever federal work mandate in Medicaid will begin in January in most states.
The “big, beautiful bill” also curtails federal support for these safety net programs, prompting states to scramble to find ways to cover their shares of the tab. New Jersey has opted to impose an annual assessment on employers with 50 or more full-time workers on Medicaid. The levy, which took effect July 1, ranges from $325 to $725 for each employee and their dependent.
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