"Amazon Among Top Washington Companies for Employee Dependence on Medicaid"

[suffragette]

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/05/07/26148929/amazon-among-top-washington-companies-for-employee-dependence-on-medicaid

While Amazon tech workers in Seattle make an average of $110,000 a year, the company recently released data showing its median employee makes less than $30,000 a year. Here in Washington, the tech company ranks 11th in the state for the number of its employees on Medicaid (also known as Apple Health), according to a November 2017 report from the Washington State Health Care Authority. The company ranked behind top offenders like Walmart and McDonalds but higher on the list than Dollar Tree, Target, Burger King, and Wendy's. Starbucks, another regional giant, ranks below Amazon but still in the top 15. (The report warns of some limits to the data, which is voluntarily self-reported by people enrolling in healthcare programs.)

On the day Amazon announced its construction pause, Seattle City Council member Teresa Mosqueda brought a copy of that list to a council committee meeting. “As we have a conversation about what companies—the largest companies—can afford to help pay for the housing crisis that we have,” Mosqueda said, “we should have a better sense of whether or not these corporations are also getting corporate welfare kickbacks.”

Mosqueda, who previously worked for the Children's Alliance on implementation of Apple Health for kids, said she expects to see companies like Walmart and McDonalds near the top of the list, but called out Kroger, Amazon, Target, and Starbucks.

“These are corporations that are doing very well within our region and yet have individuals that are on Medicaid,” Mosqueda said. “As we think about who is potentially going to benefit from the ability to have housing, it's not exactly asking a lot to think about how we can rightside up this upside down system that we have.”

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Being honest,

Amazon is using the Wal Mart model in every State they are located. Bezos is working the system our Politicians put in place.

[suffragette]

3. Agree about this. Quite different than, say, the Costco model. Notable that they are also based here

And don’t have the amount of highly paid tech jobs, but come in much lower, at 36, on the list.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Yes,Costco as well as these few

Winco,Hyvee,Cash Wise and there might be a few more. Either Employee Owned or the Management makes sure their Employees are well compensated. BTW,little to none Employee turn . Best part is,they are all making money. And they run a competitive retail operation,in most Communities they are the lowest priced retailer.

[suffragette]

7. Bob's Red Mill is another. Shows you can be successful by enriching your workers and community.

Great article about Bob Moore here:

http://www.capitalpress.com/Business/20160303/meet-the-man-behind-the-mill

He’s been featured on a Diane Sawyer ABC News segment and written up in The New York Times, among many other publications. His “people before profit” mantra made Bob’s Red Mill one of the most admired companies in the U.S. On his 81st birthday he began the process of conveying the company to his 400 workers through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, in which all employees were issued stock certificates. It didn’t cost them a cent. The first round six years ago gave employees one-third ownership; transfer of a second third is in the works.

~~~
Moore tells the students he quit reading Forbes, Fortune and other business magazines. The end point of every article, he says, was the accumulation of more money.

“That’s not the goal of my life,” he says.

He says it is his responsibility as an entrepreneur to create sustainability and permanence through competitive wages, health-care benefits and profit sharing. Doing so makes the employees vested in the company’s success, he says.

[demosincebirth]

2. Really, how much money is really enough? While still keeping some of their workers in poverty

Have they no shame?

[suffragette]

8. They have no shame. Bezos fights every tax proposal tooth and nail, even though he has

benefited so highly here and could well afford to contribute more to the city and state that have given him so much.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Welcome to the Walmartization of America (and the world)..

Considering Walmart essentially shuttered tens of thousands of mom-and-pop retail stores (hence degrading our communities), I find no sympathy for Walmart's stress over its competition with Amazon. In a sinister way, I find it amusing.

I'm not enjoying our race to the bottom.......

[suffragette]

9. I'm not enjoying our race to the bottom either. And it seems to be picking up speed.

[gratuitous]

5. Why those dirty dogs!

Don't they know they're supposed to trickle down? Instead, they're keeping all the money for the boys at the top and expecting the U.S. taxpayer to subsidize the low wages they pay their employees. Dog gone it! Too bad there's nothing that can be done about it. If only the Republicans had attached some strings to all those tax cuts for the wealthy. But that would probably be stifling over-regulation or something, and Amazon would go out of business before afternoon break.