, Columnists
Who Helps Pay Amazon’s Low-Wage Workers? You Do
Taxpayers pick up the tab for employees at big companies whose paychecks won’t cover basic necessities.
Many Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, don’t make a living wage.
Photographer: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images
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Millions of Americans work full time yet are still impoverished, their wages so low that they qualify for federal health care and food assistance programs even though many of them are employed by the biggest and most profitable U.S. companies. Because those companies don’t pay their workers a living wage, taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for daily necessities those employees can’t afford to buy themselves.
In short, corporate America is pawning off the cost of rock-bottom wages on taxpayers.