Why It Matters
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, published June 22 and publicly released July 22, asks whether major American corporations are structuring compensation in ways that shift labor costs onto taxpayers.
The GAO obtained employer data from 15 state agencies across 11 states and analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data to profile the working adults in both programs. The findings show that some of the nation's largest companies consistently rank among the top employers of workers receiving Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The Big Picture
Roughly 28 million adults ages 19 to 64 were enrolled in Medicaid in 2024, and approximately 20 million lived in households receiving SNAP benefits. About two-thirds of wage-earning adult Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients worked full-time (35 or more hours per week) in 2024, according to GAO's analysis of Census data. That finding cuts against the assumption that benefit recipients are mostly part-time or occasional workers.
Even so, compared to wage-earning adults not enrolled in either program, Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients were less likely to work full-time for 50 or more weeks per year, indicating more intermittent employment and the financial instability that comes with it.
Forty-six companies, roughly one-third of all companies identified across the 11 states, appeared among the top 25 employers of Medicaid enrollees or SNAP beneficiaries in at least two states. Seventeen of those 46 were among the 50 largest Fortune 500 companies by number of employees.
The Bottom Line
The report contains no formal recommendations to any federal agency, but rather structured as a descriptive update of labor characteristics and employer data. Its release coincides with congressional debate over Medicaid work requirements and SNAP eligibility rules.
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