Uber, Lyft, DoorDash Lead in Workers on Food Stamps

In 2025, leading gig economy companies including DoorDash, Lyft, and Uber employed the highest number of workers receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. This represents a significant change from 2020, when a previous GAO survey identified Walmart and McDonald's as the top employers of SNAP recipients. The findings indicate that platform-based work is increasingly becoming a primary income source for individuals, rather than solely a supplementary "side hustle," despite often failing to cover essential living expenses such as food and medical care for gig workers. This trend highlights a reliance on taxpayer-funded safety net programs to supplement the income of low-wage workers hired by these platform companies, who do not provide traditional employee benefits.

Scholars examining urban politics view this shift as a critical component of a larger economic picture. A survey of over 1,000 Michigan residents conducted by the Michigan Metro Area Communities Study revealed that approximately 22% of respondents had participated in gig work. Of those, about half indicated that their gig work was essential or important for meeting their basic needs. This underscores the growing dependence on flexible, often precarious, work arrangements to sustain livelihoods.

Gig work platforms, such as Uber and Lyft, frequently market their services as offering workers the freedom to earn income on their own schedules and terms. While this flexibility is a key attraction, the GAO report and related studies suggest it comes with significant drawbacks. In the Michigan survey, 90% of gig workers reported valuing this flexibility, and over two-thirds described their overall experiences positively. However, workers also voiced substantial concerns regarding pay transparency and the availability of benefits. The core issue is not the desire for flexibility itself, but whether this flexibility is sufficient to enable workers to manage financially in the current economic climate. The data suggests that for many, gig work is not just supplemental but has become a necessary, albeit often insufficient, means of survival.

The GAO report's findings are particularly noteworthy given the scale of these platforms. Uber, a ride-sharing company founded in 2009, operates in hundreds of cities globally. Lyft, its primary competitor in the U.S., also provides extensive ride-sharing services. DoorDash, a food delivery platform established in 2013, has become a dominant player in the on-demand delivery market. The increasing reliance of workers for these companies on public assistance programs like SNAP, which provides food-purchasing assistance to low-income individuals and families, points to systemic issues within the gig economy's compensation and benefits structures. This contrasts sharply with the traditional employment models of companies like Walmart, a multinational retail corporation, and McDonald's, a global fast-food chain, which were previously identified as having the highest numbers of employees utilizing SNAP.