As of July 2020, the Walton family’s net worth was 225.2 billion. They became the richest family in America by building large low-cost superstores all over the world. In 2015, six Waltons were on the Forbes 400 list of richest people in the world.
Knowing this, it is hard to believe that Walmart workers top the list of people relying on tax payor supported Medicaid insurance and food stamps. They pay their employees so poorly that they qualify for public assistance including food stamps and Medicaid. This is a win-win for them because many of their employees will turn around and use the very food stamps that the government provided to buy items within the Walmart stores.
While investors in Walmart as well as owners and top management have achieved great financial success, their workers struggle. Here in Ohio, Walmart employees at the highest number of workers requiring food stamp benefits.
Data from 2014 estimated that Walmart workers cost taxpayers $6.2 billion a year in public assistance. Ironically they pay their employees so poorly that the only place they can afford to shop is at Walmart.
The question of who should pay for healthcare United States is one that will never go away. Currently approximately 92% of people in United States have health insurance. Many people feel that healthcare is a right and that all people are entitled to it. Others feel that people should be free to buy insurance or not.
Few people would argue however that corporations such as Walmart or Amazon that are making hundreds of billions of dollars of profit should pay their employees so poorly that they need to turn to strapped state budgets to provide them basic healthcare or food stamps. Some premium should be assessed that would allow states to partially recoup this significant cost.
It would serve large corporations well to better support the health of their employees. This will lead to a more stable, healthy workforce which would benefit them in the end.
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