The irony is, according to New Food Economy, that Amazon will be able to accept SNAP benefits later this year in payment for grocery orders.

Amazon shares this dubious honor—that of the most employees on food stamps—with such other giants as McDonald's and Walmart. And the Business Insider report quotes an Amazon spokesperson's statement to the Washington Post that the numbers were “misleading because they include people who only worked for Amazon for a short period of time and/or who chose to work part-time. We have hundreds of full-time roles available, however, some prefer part-time for the flexibility or other personal reasons.”

An Amazon spokesperson also told Business Insider, “We encourage anyone to compare our pay and benefits to other retailers. Amazon is proud to have created over 130,000 new jobs last year alone. These are good jobs with highly competitive pay and full benefits. In the U.S., the average hourly wage for a full-time associate in our fulfillment centers, including cash, stock, and incentive bonuses, is over $15/hour before overtime.”

The spokesman added, “That's in addition to our full benefits package that includes health, vision and dental insurance, retirement, generous parental leave, and skills training for in-demand jobs through our Career Choice program, which has over 16,000 participants.”

Says the New Food Economy report, “Though [Amazon] now employs 200,000 people in the United States, many of its workers are not making enough money to put food on the table.”

But Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT, intends to do something about large companies with large numbers of workers on public assistance. He plans to introduce legislation on September 5 that would impose a 100 percent tax on public benefits received by workers at companies with more than 500 employees. That way, employees receiving food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and other federal assistance would end up being covered for that aid by their employer. If an employee received $100 in food stamp benefits, for example, the employer would be taxed 100 percent of that $100.

The Washington Post says the goal, according to Sanders, is to compel companies to pay a living wage and thereby offset the approximately $150 billion in taxpayer money that goes annually to pay for federal assistance for those workers making low wages.