Percentage of full time walmart employees using government benefits
Executive summary
Available public reporting and government analyses show that many full‑time workers at large low‑wage employers, including Walmart, receive government benefits such as SNAP and Medicaid; a 2020 GAO analysis and contemporaneous press reporting identified Walmart among the largest employers of program recipients [1] [2]. Walmart’s own 2024–2025 benefits materials describe medical, dental, vision and other programs for eligible associates but the documents and corporate pages provided do not state a precise percentage of full‑time Walmart employees who use government benefits [3] [4].
1. "The GAO snapshot: Walmart appears frequently among benefit recipients"
Federal‑level reporting cited by advocacy and news outlets notes the Government Accountability Office found millions of wage‑earning adults enrolled in Medicaid and SNAP; the GAO’s state‑level lists repeatedly placed Walmart among the top employers of those beneficiaries — for example, state snapshots included thousands of Walmart employees on food stamps in 2018–2020 data used by the GAO [1] [2]. These findings show correlation between large employers with many low‑wage jobs and substantial numbers of workers receiving public assistance, but they are not a direct percentage of all full‑time Walmart workers nationwide [1].
2. "What the corporate benefits books say — and do not say"
Walmart’s 2025 Associate Benefits Book and related internal materials clearly describe employer‑sponsored medical, dental and vision plans and eligibility rules for hourly associates — including annual eligibility checks and tools for measuring hours — indicating that benefits are available to many full‑time hourly associates [3] [5]. Those same documents and the public benefits overview discuss marketplace interactions and enrollment, but they do not disclose company‑wide rates or the share of associates who concurrently receive public assistance [4] [3].
3. "Why a single percentage is absent from public materials"
Available Walmart materials are focused on plan design, eligibility and internal rates for coverage and do not compile or publish a company‑wide metric of how many full‑time associates are enrolled in government programs. Independent reporting and advocacy releases rely on GAO and state administrative data to identify counts by employer in sampled jurisdictions rather than producing an aggregate national percentage for full‑time Walmart workers [3] [1]. Therefore current public documentation does not provide the specific percentage you requested [5].
4. "Competing interpretations in media and advocacy"
Opinion and investigative pieces interpret the GAO findings as evidence that large corporations effectively rely on public subsidies because many of their workers access Medicaid and SNAP; commentators argue this is a corporate wages problem [1] [6]. Walmart and other companies respond that employment access and household factors explain program enrollment and that company benefits offset financial pressures — a counterpoint reported in news coverage [2] [6]. Both perspectives are present in the sources: the GAO‑based counts underpin criticism, and corporate statements emphasize benefits and broader household context [1] [2] [6].
5. "What the numbers in the reporting actually represent"
The GAO‑based accounts referenced by news outlets list counts of program recipients employed by given large employers in sampled states and timeframes (for example, thousands of SNAP recipients employed by Walmart in certain states during 2018–2020), not the proportion of all full‑time Walmart associates nationally [1] [2]. Journalists use those counts to argue scale; critics extrapolate to infer reliance on public assistance, while companies caution against simplistic conclusions because program eligibility depends on household makeup and state policies [1] [2].
6. "Practical next steps to get the specific percentage"
To produce a defensible national percentage, researchers need matched administrative data: Walmart employee rosters with full‑time status and contemporaneous SNAP/Medicaid enrollment records or a representative survey linking employment and benefit receipt. Available sources do not include such a nationwide matched dataset or a single published percentage; therefore the exact figure you asked for is not found in current reporting [1] [3].
Limitations and transparency: All factual assertions above are drawn from the provided corporate benefit documents and reporting that cites the GAO/state data; the sources do not publish a single national percentage of full‑time Walmart employees using government benefits, so this analysis cannot supply that precise metric [3] [1].