The U.S. Government Accountability Office gathered data from 11 states and used census data to extrapolate from there. According to the GAO report, an estimated 13.8 million American adults enrolled in Medicaid, and 10.6 million who live in a household that receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits worked at least part time in 2024. Two-thirds of that group worked full-time jobs, clocking in 35 or more hours each week. Most of these employed recipients of federal benefits worked in some of the lowest-paying jobs in the country, but an estimated 35% of them were employed at companies with more than 1,000 workers.

As The Washington Post reported in its analysis of the GAO data, the top employers of these federal beneficiaries are some of the nation’s biggest and most well-known companies. “The number of Amazon workers relying on the federal programs for the poor nearly tripled between February 2020 and September 2025,” the Post noted, to around 12,346 workers who needed SNAP assistance and 11,338 who had to rely on Medicaid. “And for the first time, ride-hailing and app-based food delivery companies — Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub and Instacart — collectively ranked among the top three employers with workers receiving aid.” Rounding out the group: Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, as well as Dollar General and McDonald’s.