Bernie Sanders' new bill will force companies to reimburse governments for low-paid employees' welfare costs

Bernie Sanders has introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (STOP BEZOS) Act, which will force any corporation with more than 500 employees to reimburse the government for any workers whose wages are so low that they end up on food stamps, national school lunch/breakfast programs, Section 8 housing or Medicaid.


Ro Khanna has introduced a House version of the bill.


A report from nonprofit organization New Food Economy in April also indicated that 1 in 3 Arizona Amazon employees receive SNAP aid, and 1 in 10 receive them in Pennsylvania and Ohio. (The report was based on public records that only five states provided.) Amazon has said that the numbers are skewed by people who work part-time or were only briefly employed at Amazon.

Amazon likely isn't the company that would be hit hardest by this rule. McDonald's and Walmart, for instance, had the most SNAP-reliant employees in every state New Food Economy analyzed.