America’s 20 Largest Low-Wage Employers and the Affordability Crisis

Introduction

While CEO pay at large U.S. corporations remains in the stratosphere, low-wage workers are struggling with both rising costs and the gutting of our social safety net —with 7.5 million Americans expected to lose Medicaid and 4 million to lose SNAP benefits to offset tax cuts for corporations and the rich under the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Solving the current “affordability crisis” will require safety net repairs and better ways to control basic costs. But to fix this problem for the long-term, we need to put an end to the poverty wage business model that is all too prevalent in Corporate America.

This report analyzes the 20 largest employers of low-wage U.S. workers, a group we’ve dubbed the “Low-Wage 20.” Together, the Low-Wage 20 companies employ approximately 6.7 million people in the United States. Their median worker wages in 2024 ranged from $9,602 (Ross Stores) to $47,607 (MGM Resorts) — compared to an average CEO compensation of over $18 million.

In this report, we find that most of these firms pay their workers so little that employees are forced to rely on public benefits like SNAP and Medicaid. Yet their CEOs make, on average, nearly 900 times more than their median employees — and their companies often spend billions on stock buybacks, artificially hiking their stock prices (and with it, CEO pay) instead of raising pay for workers.

Yet with lawmakers slashing the safety yet that these workers rely on — to fund yet more corporate tax breaks — it’s more important than ever to find ways to make these companies pay their employees equitably.

Our full findings and methodology are available in the full-length PDF. A summary of our key findings and recommendations follows here.

The Low-Wage 20

Median Pay at the Low-Wage 20 vs. the Basics

Recommendations

In this time of high economic anxiety for those at the bottom of the income ladder, it’s more important than ever that corporations share their wealth equitably. Policymakers at all levels of government should take action to help build worker power and lift wages so that everyone in the world’s richest country can afford basic necessities.

Adopt “Bad Business Fees.”

“Bad Business Fees” would impose significant fines on companies that pay wages so low their workers are forced to depend on public assistance.

Under a model for a state-level Bad Business Fee developed by Jobs with Justice, elected boards of community stakeholders would decide how the revenue is spent. Options could include subsidizing worker wages so that they do not need to use social safety net programs, covering the cuts to those safety net programs, or otherwise meeting the needs of low-wage workers and their communities.

This would strengthen democracy on multiple fronts, notes Adam Shah of Jobs with Justice in a recent op-ed. “First,” he explains, “it ensures that states and localities can maintain basic protections regardless of what happens at the federal level. Second, it promotes the practice of democracy by giving communities direct control over how public money is spent — replacing cynicism with real civic power. Third, it would strengthen the economic portion of our democracy. Companies would be incentivized to work directly with and respond to their employees’ requests for fair wages and adequate benefits, giving workers the voice and dignity they deserve.”

As one step forward, state governments should adopt disclosure laws along the lines of the Nevada statute that requires the publication of an annual report listing major employers in the state and the number of their employees enrolled in Medicaid. Ideally, these laws would require disclosure of all employees, whether they are working full or part time, and cover additional public aid programs.

Strengthen labor rights protections.

When employees of Low-Wage 20 corporations try to unionize to bargain collectively for higher pay, they typically face aggressive anti-union tactics and weak enforcement of their rights. The most obvious examples: Amazon and Starbucks workers who voted to unionize four years ago are still waiting for their employers to negotiate first contracts, despite numerous National Labor Relations Board rulings over rights violations.

Policymakers at the federal and state levels should consider comprehensive labor reforms that expand worker rights to organize, penalize employer violations, facilitate first-contract negotiations, and prohibit employer interference in organizing, among other improvements.

Another promising approach would involve denying corporate tax deductions for expenses related to union-busting activities, such as so-called “captive audience meetings” and anti-union advertising campaigns.

Raise the minimum wage.

The U.S. Congress has not raised the federal minimum wage for 16 years, the longest period of wage inaction in history. Thirty states and D.C. have raised their state minimums above the federal floor. But that still leaves a significant share of the U.S. workforce in states where the minimum wage is still stuck at $7.25 per hour.

Minimum wage hikes not only help those at the bottom of the wage scale. They also tend to boost pay for those higher up the scale, such as Low-Wage 20 employees who are likely making more than $7.25 but still not earning enough to cover basic costs.

Tax corporations with huge CEO-worker pay gaps at higher rates.

Higher tax rates on companies with wide CEO-worker pay gaps would create an incentive to both rein in executive pay and raise worker wages, all while generating significant new capital for vital public investments.

Members of Congress have introduced several bills that would impose tax penalties on companies with huge pay gaps, including the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act, the CEO Accountability and Responsibility Act, and the Curtailing Executive Overcompensation (CEO) Act.

Two major cities, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, already apply such taxes on corporations operating in their jurisdictions, and campaigns are underway to increase the existing San Francisco tax and introduce a new “Overpaid CEO Tax” in Los Angeles through ballot measures in 2026.

A 2024 survey found that 80 percent of Americans favor a tax hike on corporations that pay their CEOs over 50 or more times more than what they pay their median employees.

Tax and restrict stock buybacks.

A 1 percent federal excise tax on the repurchase of corporate stock went into effect in 2023. A Senate bill, the Stock Buyback Accountability Act, would quadruple this excise tax. Another Senate bill, the ALIGN Act, would ban executives from selling their shares within a year of a stock buyback announcement to cash in personally.

Use federal contracts and subsidies to encourage pay equity.

Policymakers at the federal, state, and city levels could do more to use the power of the public purse to ensure that public investments are not supporting poverty wage business models.

In 2021, the Biden administration issued an executive order to establish a $15 hourly minimum wage for federal contractors, adjusted annually for inflation. They also used the leverage of new subsidies for domestic semiconductor production to discourage grantees from spending resources on stock buybacks. In 2025, the incoming administration revoked the $15 minimum for federal contractors, a move that underscored the importance of codifying such policies in legislation.