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Fact check: How have SNAP reliance trends among major US retailers' workforce changed from 2019 through 2023?
Executive Summary
From the provided analyses, the central finding is that major U.S. retailers—most notably Walmart—have been consistently identified as among the top employers whose workers rely on SNAP and Medicaid from 2019 through 2023, with studies and reporting in 2020 and 2024 reinforcing that pattern. The core claims are drawn from a 2020 Government Accountability Office report that documented high rates of full-time workers among federal aid recipients and named Walmart and McDonald’s as prominent employers, and two 2024 analyses that highlight Walmart’s outsized share of SNAP customers and persistence of worker reliance on benefits [1] [2] [3].
1. Key claims pulled from the reporting — who is said to employ SNAP recipients and how prevalent is the reliance?
The analyses assert several interlocking claims: that roughly 70% of SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries were full-time workers, that 90% of those were in the private sector, and that Walmart figures among the top four private employers whose employees rely on those programs (this comes from the 2020 GAO finding cited in later 2024 reporting). The 2024 reporting adds that Walmart captured more than 25% of grocery dollars spent by SNAP recipients, and that over 94% of SNAP recipients shopped at Walmart in the studied period, indicating both worker reliance and shopper concentration around the same retailer [1] [2] [3]. These claims together imply persistent low wages or structural necessity driving full-time employees to enroll in safety-net programs.
2. Comparing the GAO baseline to 2024 follow-up reporting — continuity and emphasis
The 2020 GAO report provides a baseline assertion that a substantial share of federal aid beneficiaries were working full time and clustered in private-sector employment, with Walmart and McDonald’s prominent among top employers. The 2024 articles revisit that baseline with two emphases: one frames Walmart’s business growth alongside continued reliance by its workforce on Medicaid and SNAP, suggesting a contrast between corporate performance and worker economic insecurity [2] [1]. The other quantifies SNAP customers’ shopping behavior, showing Walmart’s dominant role in capturing SNAP grocery dollars and indicating multi-store shopping patterns among recipients [3]. Taken together, the sources present consistent findings across time—the GAO’s worker-centered data and 2024 retail-focused analyses reinforce a narrative of persistent reliance among retail workers and concentrated SNAP spending.
3. What the timeline implies about 2019–2023 trends — persistence, not sudden change
Although none of the supplied analyses directly presents an annualized time series from 2019 through 2023, the 2020 GAO report covers the immediate pre- and early-pandemic period and establishes a high prevalence of full-time workers among SNAP/Medicaid recipients, while 2024 reporting reiterates that the pattern remains entrenched and highlights the retail side’s absorption of SNAP dollars. The absence of intermediate publicly provided annual snapshots in these analyses means the most defensible interpretation is persistence rather than dramatic reversal: the GAO’s 2020 findings and the 2024 retail studies both show Walmart as a central employer and destination for SNAP dollars, implying that reliance levels among major retailers’ workforces did not markedly abate through 2023 and remained a salient policy and business issue [1] [2] [3].
4. Retailer-specific portrait: Walmart’s dual role as top employer and SNAP focal point
The combined sources paint Walmart as simultaneously a top private employer of beneficiaries of federal aid programs and the dominant retail outlet for SNAP household grocery dollars. The GAO identified Walmart among leading employers of Medicaid and SNAP beneficiaries across multiple states, and 2024 market studies report Walmart capturing over a quarter of SNAP grocery spending and serving over 94% of SNAP households in the sample [1] [3]. Reporting in 2024 emphasizes the contrast between Walmart’s corporate growth and the reliance of its workforce on public benefits, highlighting a structural tension between employer market success and employee economic vulnerability. These points suggest that discussions of SNAP reliance among retailer workforces must consider both employer wages/benefits and consumer shopping patterns.
5. Limits of the evidence, open questions, and areas needing more granular data
The supplied analyses do not supply a year-by-year breakdown between 2019 and 2023, nor do they provide disaggregated counts by retailer for every year in that window; the GAO data is dated 2020 and the other pieces are from 2024. This leaves gaps about whether reliance rose, fell, or fluctuated during 2021–2023 as pandemic-era labor and benefit dynamics evolved. The sources also conflate worker enrollment in SNAP/Medicaid with consumer shopping patterns, which are related but distinct phenomena; more precise conclusions require longitudinal employer-level data, workforce demographics, state-by-state comparisons, and annual SNAP enrollment tied to employer payroll records [1] [2] [3]. Without those, the strongest supported claim is continuity of reliance and Walmart’s centrality to both employment and SNAP spending patterns.