{"id":14169,"date":"2026-07-23T02:59:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14169"},"modified":"2026-07-23T02:59:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:59:45","slug":"gao-report-finds-surge-in-gig-workers-receiving-federal-poverty-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14169","title":{"rendered":"GAO report finds surge in gig workers receiving federal poverty assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2024\/07\/25\/California_Uber_Lyft_Drivers_64880_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The number of gig workers relying on federal assistance programs for the poor while driving for ride-sharing and delivery services has soared, the Government Accountability Office found in a report published Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The federal auditing agency estimated that the number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/amazon\/\">Amazon<\/a> employees enrolled in Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program nearly tripled from February 2020 to September 2025 in 11 states that reported their numbers.<\/p>\n<p>It also found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/uber\/\">Uber<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/lyft\/\">Lyft<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/doordash\/\">DoorDash<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/grubhub\/\">Grubhub<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/instacart\/\">Instacart<\/a> collectively replaced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/walmart\/\">Walmart<\/a> \u2013 the nation\u2019s biggest employer \u2013 as the company with the most recipients of SNAP food subsidies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/amazon\/\">Amazon<\/a>, the nation\u2019s second-largest employer, passed McDonald\u2019s and moved into second place behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/walmart\/\">Walmart<\/a> on the Medicaid list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerican taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/walmart\/\">Walmart<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/amazon\/\">Amazon<\/a>,\u201d Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont Independent who requested the report, said in a statement. \u201cIt is beyond unacceptable that these corporations, owned by some of the wealthiest people on the planet, are receiving corporate welfare from the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report included Medicaid employer data from six states: Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Rhode Island.<\/p>\n<p>Its SNAP employer data came from nine states: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Only four of the states \u2014 Georgia, Indiana, Maine and Massachusetts \u2014 reported data for both programs.<\/p>\n<p>The report estimated that 13.8 million Americans enrolled in Medicaid in 2024, up from 12 million in 2020, and 66.1% of them worked full-time.<\/p>\n<p>Another 10.6 million adults relied on SNAP to buy groceries in 2024, up from 9 million in 2020, and 71.3% of them worked full-time.<\/p>\n<p>The Flex Association, a trade group representing app-based gig companies, emphasized in an emailed statement that 80% of their drivers work part-time to supplement other jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApp-based workers are independent contractors who choose when and how they work,\u201d said Flex CEO Kristin Sharp.<\/p>\n<p>She added: \u201cThe fact that people who qualify for public assistance choose flexible work to earn more money is a benefit of this model and why many people turn to it in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/doordash\/\">DoorDash<\/a> spokesperson noted that its average delivery driver worked just four hours a week last year, and 63% did so to make up for reduced hours or income at another part-time or full-time job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor people who still need to make ends meet, dashing can actually help them stay off government assistance,\u201d the spokesperson said in an email. \u201cOne-third of Dashers say that dashing helped them avoid needing to apply for benefits like unemployment insurance or SNAP\/EBT in the first place, which is the opposite of the narrative this report suggests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/amazon\/\">Amazon<\/a> officials noted that 74% of the retail giant\u2019s employees are enrolled in a company health insurance plan \u2013 well above the 65% rate for full-time private-sector employees nationally \u2013 and cited the company\u2019s substantial growth since 2020 for driving up raw Medicaid numbers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe conclusions drawn from this report are wrong and based on either a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the facts,\u201d said Rachael Lighty, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/amazon\/\">Amazon<\/a> spokeswoman. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/amazon\/\">Amazon<\/a> is one of the largest job creators in the country, so looking at raw numbers instead of percentages is misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She pointed out that eligibility for SNAP and Medicaid is based on total household income and family size, not individual wages or benefits.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/amazon\/\">Amazon<\/a> announced a $1 billion investment to raise pay and lower health-care costs for its fulfillment and transportation employees, increasing the average hourly base wage to more than $23 and bringing average total compensation with benefits to $30 per hour.<\/p>\n<p>An Oxford Economics study published last October found that within five years of a fulfillment center opening, the surrounding area saw roughly 6,000 fewer Medicaid-enrolled residents as employment increased.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a KFF analysis found that Medicaid enrollment was roughly 10% higher in February 2025 than February 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe issue is less about unemployment than about low productivity and low wages concentrated in specific sectors,\u201d said Peter Earle, senior director of research at the free-market American Institute for Economic Research.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Earle said more than 7 in 10 recipients of Medicaid and SNAP work in five low-paying industries: retail, restaurants, hospitality, healthcare support and related services.<\/p>\n<p>He added that more than one-third of working Medicaid recipients, and over 40% of working SNAP beneficiaries, come from companies with at least 1,000 employees, including many Fortune 500 firms.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, gig work exploded during the pandemic as more Americans sought to offset soaring inflation.<\/p>\n<p>A May 2023 working paper published by the University of Chicago found that the number of gig workers jumped from 1.8 million in 2019 to 4.9 million in 2021, a 170% increase.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are mostly temporary employees who do the work piecemeal when they need to rather than full-time as a career,\u201d said Sean Higgins, an analyst at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn other words, they\u2019re people on Medicaid who earn extra bucks by ride-sharing or doing deliveries when they can,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes sense that they would enroll in Medicaid because that program was made for people like them.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"author-contact-section\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of gig workers relying on federal assistance programs for the poor while driving for ride-sharing and delivery services has soared, the Government Accountability Office found in a report published Wednesday. The federal auditing agency estimated that the number of Amazon employees enrolled in Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program nearly tripled from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2024\/07\/25\/California_Uber_Lyft_Drivers_64880_c0-94-2522-1565_s1200x700.jpg?d8321a8792c7b468bfc6946c26f25bcc6761e2d2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}