What are the average wages and hours of Walmart employees who enroll in SNAP?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows that detailed, employer-specific averages for wages and hours of Walmart employees enrolled in SNAP are limited; federal GAO work and subsequent reporting document counts of Walmart employees on SNAP in specific states but do not provide a national breakdown of “average wages and hours” for those Walmart SNAP enrollees [1] [2]. Multiple outlets cite state snapshots—for example, roughly 14,500 Walmart workers were on SNAP in nine states in the GAO-period reporting cited by news outlets and advocacy groups—but the GAO and later coverage emphasize counts and industry patterns rather than a precise average hourly pay or average weekly hours for Walmart SNAP recipients [2] [3].
1. What the federal data actually measures — and what it doesn’t
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) asked state SNAP and Medicaid agencies for the top employers of program recipients and produced counts by employer in the states that responded; that exercise yields employer rankings and counts (for example, Walmart appearing among top employers and tens of thousands of workers on SNAP across a subset of states) but does not provide a nationally representative average wage or average hours worked specifically for Walmart SNAP enrollees [1] [2]. News coverage of the GAO report reports employer tallies (e.g., about 14,500 Walmart workers on SNAP in nine states) but reports those as counts, not as average wages or hours worked [2] [3].
2. What reporting does say about wages of Walmart workers more broadly
Several outlets and analyses discuss Walmart’s reported pay ranges or company statements about raises: coverage cites starting wages or company averages (for example, reporting that Walmart’s overall average hourly pay was around $18.25 in one 2025 account and that the company has pledged further raises) — but those figures describe overall employee pay, not the subset of employees enrolled in SNAP specifically [4]. Advocacy and investigative pieces frame a “corporate subsidy” argument: many retail and food-service workers who receive SNAP also work full time, which signals income inadequacy in some cases, but these arguments rest on linking broad wage levels to program participation rather than on a precise employer-by-enrollee wage/hour average [4] [5].
3. Hours worked: full time work and SNAP recipients
The GAO analysis and its coverage underline a key finding used in debate: a substantial share of SNAP and Medicaid adult recipients report working full time at some point, and many SNAP recipients are in the private sector and in retail or food service [1] [4]. Reporting cites that “more than half of adult SNAP recipients” or similarly large shares worked full time in some GAO-related surveys, but those claims are about program recipients overall and not limited to Walmart employees receiving SNAP [4] [1]. In short: state GAO data show employer counts; broader national surveys show many recipients work long hours—but no source in the set provides an “average weekly hours worked by Walmart SNAP enrollees” figure [1] [4].
4. Employer counts and geographic snapshots that shape the debate
Multiple sources reuse the GAO state findings to note that Walmart is among the largest employers of SNAP recipients in the sampled states: examples given include roughly 14,500 Walmart workers on SNAP across nine states, and other state-level numbers such as 10,350 Walmart employees on Medicaid in six states [2] [6]. These counts are the basis for claims that taxpayers effectively subsidize low wages at big retailers; they inform policy debates on living wages and benefit design [6] [4]. The data’s geographic skew (only the states that responded) means extrapolating to a national “average” would overreach the underlying source [1].
5. Contrasting viewpoints in the sources
Advocacy outlets and politicians frame the data as evidence Walmart and similar employers rely on federal benefits to offset low pay, urging higher minimum wages or policy remedies [6] [4]. Retail-industry coverage tends to emphasize Walmart’s role as a major SNAP retailer and notes company steps like wage raises or discounts for SNAP users; such reporting uses corporate averages or program-impact figures — again not the wage/hours of the SNAP-enrolled cohort [7] [8] [4]. Both perspectives rely on the same underlying facts (employer counts and broad wage figures) but draw different policy prescriptions.
6. What you can and cannot conclude from available sources
You can reliably say: the GAO and reporting based on it identify Walmart as a top employer of SNAP recipients in the states studied and provide employer-level counts (e.g., ~14,500 in nine states) [2] [6]. You cannot, from the provided set of sources, state a documented national average hourly wage or average weekly hours specifically for Walmart employees who are enrolled in SNAP — those exact statistics are not reported in the sources provided [1] [3]. Any attempt to estimate such an average from overall Walmart pay rates would mix different populations and is not supported by these sources [4] [1].
7. How journalists and policymakers should proceed
Reporters and policymakers should pressure for transparent, employer-linked microdata when needed: the GAO approach (asking states for employer lists) was useful for counts but insufficient for an earnings-hours profile; a rigorous answer requires matched administrative data or representative survey microdata that break out employer, wages, and hours for SNAP enrollees [1]. Meanwhile, policy debate can legitimately use existing employer counts plus broad wage statistics to argue for living-wage measures or benefit reforms — but should avoid asserting precise averages that the available reporting does not supply [2] [4].