GAO's New Count of Grocery Workers on Public Assistance

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has documented how deeply grocery and convenience retail is tied to federal safety-net programs. Nationally, an estimated 13.8 million wage-earning adults were enrolled in Medicaid in 2024, and 10.6 million lived in households receiving SNAP benefits. Wholesale and retail trade accounted for 15.5% of working adult Medicaid enrollees and 16.8% of working adult SNAP recipients, shares well above the industry's 12.1% presence among workers who did not receive those benefits.

The pattern shows up at the company level in the states that supplied employer data. In Georgia, Walmart had an estimated 4,595 nondisabled, nonelderly working adults on Medicaid as of September 2025, followed by Dollar General with 1,763, Publix with 1,357 and Kroger with 1,126. In Massachusetts, Stop & Shop had 1,333 such workers, Demoulas Super Markets, operator of Market Basket, had 980 and Shaw's had 845. State SNAP figures showed similar names: Walmart, Dollar General, Kroger, Dollar Tree, Meijer, Safeway, Fred Meyer, Albertsons, WinCo and Costco all appeared on state lists.

The report undercuts the assumption that benefit use mainly reflects part-time schedules. About two-thirds of working adult Medicaid enrollees and 71.3% of working adult SNAP recipients worked at least 35 hours a week during 2024. Nearly half of Medicaid-enrolled wage earners and just over half of SNAP recipients worked 50 to 52 weeks that year. The GAO says the state employer numbers should not be treated as a national ranking, but the broader national data reinforce that grocery is one of the industries where low-wage employment and public assistance overlap most.

Why Grocery's Reliance on Medicaid and SNAP Is a Structural Workforce Issue

What the Georgia, Oklahoma and Massachusetts Lists Reveal

The names are not a single-format problem: Walmart supercenters, Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores, traditional supermarkets such as Publix, Stop & Shop and Market Basket, and warehouse clubs all appear. The GAO cautions that larger employers are naturally more likely to rank high, but the state-level concentration ratios matter more. In Maine and Rhode Island, grocery and convenience retailers accounted for about 20% of working adult Medicaid enrollees at larger private-sector employers; in Maine, they accounted for 27% of working adult SNAP recipients at those employers.

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Why Full-Time Work Did Not Close the Benefit Gap

The most striking finding is that full-time, year-round private-sector employment is common among benefit recipients. The GAO does not identify household income, family size or state benefit eligibility rules, so the report cannot by itself prove that an individual wage is below a specific threshold. But the consistency across employers and states indicates that current compensation levels and hours are not enough to move many grocery workers off Medicaid or SNAP.

Where This Leaves the Named Chains

The data create both a reputational and a policy exposure. Companies such as Walmart, Dollar General and Kroger are now publicly associated with tens of thousands of workers relying on federal assistance. That gives state legislators and workforce advocates a concrete, employer-specific dataset to use in debates over minimum wages, scheduling rules and benefit mandates. For investors, the report suggests that grocery's labor model carries a contingent cost: if states respond with new requirements, the employers most represented in these state lists would feel the impact first.

What Named Retailers, Policymakers and Investors Can Do With the GAO Data

  • For senior management at named chains: Reconcile the GAO state counts with internal HR and benefits data. In Georgia, Walmart had 4,595 Medicaid-enrolled workers and Dollar General had 1,763; that is a benchmark for understanding how state eligibility interacts with each company's wage and benefits structure.
  • For state policymakers: Use the state-specific shares, not the company totals. Maine's 27% grocery/convenience share of large-employer SNAP recipients is a more actionable target than a national headline, while lower shares in Tennessee and Massachusetts point to different local labor-market conditions.
  • For investors: Ask publicly traded grocers to disclose how many U.S. employees are enrolled in Medicaid or SNAP and what a state-level pay or benefit mandate would cost in the states where they have the largest counts. The GAO data already provide a state-by-state starting point for that calculation.

Risk & Opportunity Assessment

Commercial RiskMediumState-level employer data could prompt wage and benefit mandates in states with high grocery worker enrollment, raising labor costs for Walmart, Dollar General, Kroger and regional chains.
Competitive RiskMediumCompanies named with large counts, such as Walmart in Georgia and Oklahoma, face different public scrutiny than competitors; unions and campaigners can use the data to target labor practices.
Regulatory RiskMediumThe GAO report is not a statute, but data from 11 states create a ready-made evidentiary base for legislative or regulatory action on low-wage retail employment.
Reputation RiskHighFull-time workers at major grocery employers still relying on Medicaid and SNAP undermines employer-brand and ESG claims and exposes high-profile brands to negative coverage.
Technology DisruptionLowThe report contains no technology findings; any link between public assistance reliance and automation would be speculative.
Commercial OpportunityMediumRetailers that improve pay, scheduling or benefits could reduce turnover and lower the share of workers needing public assistance, though the report does not quantify that upside.