Thread by @bopinion

Millions of Americans work full time yet are still impoverished.

Their wages are 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 trib.al/95LK5rD

Since 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.

One of the most prominent companies doing this is Amazon, according to a recent study trib.al/95LK5rD

Amazon was heavily discussed in a Senate Budget Committee hearing that looked at the perils of income inequality in the U.S.

Income inequality isn’t merely an academic issue. It’s inequitable and inefficient to have taxpayers take from their wallets trib.al/95LK5rD

Amazon is a $1.6 trillion conglomerate. Founder Jeff Bezos is one of the wealthiest people in the world.

It can afford to lift its workers out of poverty, so why does it rely on taxpayers to fill in the blanks? trib.al/95LK5rD

Bernie Sanders would have undoubtedly questioned Bezos during Wednesday’s hearing, but Bezos declined the senator’s invitation.

At Amazon warehouses, workers toil under harsh conditions for miserly wages trib.al/95LK5rD

"We’re living paycheck to paycheck,” Jennifer Bates, an Amazon worker in a fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, testified.

About 8,400 Amazon employees are enrolled in Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 11 states trib.al/95LK5rD

Amazon employs about 1.3 million people.

@TimOBrien and @nirkaissar estimate at least 38,000 Amazon workers rely on U.S. government assistance. It would cost Amazon an additional $500 million a year or so to push them above the federal poverty level trib.al/95LK5rD

As it stands, that marginal cost is borne by taxpayers.

That reality is all the more vexing given that Amazon reported an income tax expense of $2.9 billion last year, or just 14% of its income — well below the already low corporate tax rate of 21% trib.al/95LK5rD

Without answers from Amazon or Bezos, the logical conclusion is that the company sticks taxpayers with its bills simply because it can.

Are you happy opening your wallet or purse so the world’s richest companies can keep their payrolls low? trib.al/95LK5rD

Congress could demand that Amazon reimburse taxpayers for the cost of assistance to its workers

It could also craft minimum-wage legislation that would require large companies to pay full-time workers a living wage trib.al/95LK5rD

Amazon isn’t alone, of course. Many big companies rely on taxpayers to sustain their workers:

🛒Walmart
🍔McDonald’s
🪓Home Depot

It's a devastating glimpse of the millions of workers who earn so little they can’t pay for food, shelter and health care trib.al/95LK5rD