A report released by the liberal, Policy Matters Ohio, undertook a survey of Ohio’s labor force and welfare recipients. In their report, which polled 1,430 working class people and their families, it found that Amazon is the 19th largest employer in the state. This should not be surprising, considering the massive size of the company, and their CEO, Jeff Bezos – the richest man in the world.
However, it seems that 10% of Amazon’s Ohio workforce is so destitute that they are on welfare. As a welfare recipient typically gets benefits fit for two, this essentially means that the online retail giant has around 700 workers that are currently on the program in Ohio, The report says, “To be on the list, a company has to have a large number of workers in the state. In addition, that company has to have a significant number of workers who don’t make much money or maybe work part-time”.
Workers getting food stamps, in essence, becomes an additional taxpayer subsidy for the companies that pay low wages, said Zach Schiller, Policy Matters’ research director.
‘We’ve appreciated having more employment, but maybe we should be focusing economic development dollars on good jobs. It’s pretty clear that a lot of these jobs are not good jobs,’ he said. ‘That should raise a policy question for our public officials, and that’s why we think it’s worth pointing out.’”
As per the report, to be eligible for thefood stamps, it is necessary for a family of three to be earning at most a sum equaling $26,208 a year, or $12.60 an hour for a person working 40 hours a week.
The Ohio Development Services Agency went on to release a statement while appreciating Amazon for the economic opportunity created by the company in the state of Ohio, and also pointed out the fact that this would not have been otherwise possible. Amazon did not respond to any request for comments.
“Amazon has created thousands of new jobs and generated millions of dollars in new payroll consistent with Ohio’s requirements for economic incentives,” the Ohio Development Services Agency said in the statement released. “These jobs provide economic opportunity to Ohioans that may not have had it before.”
The company has almost 6,000 workers in the state and ranks 53rd on the list of the state’s largest employers. Amazon’s presence in Ohio eventually would continue to increase, with further plans of building two or more distribution centers for Amazon in Buckeye State.
The State has also put forth a bid that would offer Amazon to make Ohio its second headquarters, which would further help in generating 50,000 jobs and a huge $5 billion in terms of investments.