GAO report shows near-tripling of Amazon workers on federal assistance as company profit hits record

Federal assistance for Amazon workers has nearly tripled since 2020

A U.S. Government Accountability Office review of 11 states found 12,346 Amazon employees receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and 11,338 relying on Medicaid, figures described as nearly three times the comparable 2020 counts. The same review framed these benefits as a subsidy supporting one of the country's largest employers, with the implication that, in the absence of federal programs, thousands of Amazon's lowest-paid workers would struggle to cover basic expenses. Coverage also identified Walmart, ride-hailing platforms such as Uber, and chains including McDonald's and Dollar General among leading employers of adults enrolled in SNAP and Medicaid, situating Amazon within a wider pattern of low-wage employers relying on public assistance.

Profit and revenue rose sharply over the same period

During the 2020-to-2025 span covered by the GAO data, Amazon's annual profit climbed from $11.6 billion to $77.7 billion. The company's 2025 revenue rose 12% year over year, from $638 billion to a record $717 billion. The juxtaposition of these figures with the assistance data is the central comparison advanced across the three sources covering the report.

Amazon disputes the GAO-based conclusion

Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty told Fortune that the conclusion drawn from the GAO report was "wrong." In a statement, Lighty said Amazon pay is "among the best in the industry," that regular full-time employees have access to health care from their first day at "only $5 per week with $5 copays for employee-only coverage," and that 74% of regular full-time employees are enrolled in an Amazon health insurance plan, "well above the 65% private-sector take-up rate for full-time workers." The rebuttal is the only on-record company response captured in the available sources.

A broader labor-share backdrop

Coverage of the GAO findings placed the Amazon figures inside a wider trend: U.S. labor's share of economic output has fallen to 52.8%, the lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the metric in 1947, while the S&P 500 has gained roughly 600% since 2000 and wages have risen about 12.5% over the same period adjusted for inflation. GAO director Catherine Larin, responsible for education, workforce, and income security issues, said the analysis "really shows how many people are living on very low incomes and continue to have very low incomes," noting that about 71.3% of working-age adults receiving SNAP, roughly 7.5 million people, work 35 or more hours a week.

What remains unresolved

The three sources agree on the GAO counts, the profit and revenue figures, and the labor-share framing, but differ in emphasis: one leans on the subsidy argument, another stresses the historical wage-share trend, and the third carries Amazon's rebuttal in full. No subsequent GAO hearing, congressional response, or Amazon filing specifically tied to the 11-state dataset was identified in the supplied evidence, leaving the policy and corporate follow-up as the open question.