A thought about treating employees well on Labor Day. With minimum wage not keeping up with inflation, people in too many jobs are falling further behind.

Seems like a potential fix to something like SNAP could come from taxing the companies who pay so little their workers end up on it. They include the employer from filings. Cross-reference that against SNAP filings. If employees of a company cost SNAP more than a reasonable amount, say $100,000, then the company makes up the difference.

Implementation could be gradual. Start at 20% of the difference in year one and increase by 20% a year until it hits 100%.

I would not be opposed to capping it at 120%.

Potential problem would be I think IRS filings aren’t supposed to be accessible by other programs like SNAP. Congress would need to pass a law to create program and the tax and fix that. The public doesn’t seem to outraged by such sharing as when DoGE did it, high information social media users complained, but it never achieved large community consciousness.

The GOP and center-right Democrats will oppose it as hurting businesses. These companies churn through employees because they don’t pay a living wage. They pass the cost on to the government to make up the difference. Pay your employees well.