Thousands of Colorado Workers Clock In but Still Need Food Stamps to Survive

In Colorado, holding a job no longer guarantees you can put food on the table. Data obtained from the Colorado Department of Human Services reveals that over 600,000 workers received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in October 2025. This includes 2,300 Amazon employees, more than 1,000 King Soopers workers, and nearly 600 Denver Public Schools staff—many earning some of the highest teacher wages in the state.

Denver Public Schools acknowledges the problem. Scott Pribble, the district’s communications director, admitted their minimum hourly wage of $20, while above state minimums, still leaves staff struggling. “We recognize the need to do more,” he said, signaling that current wages are insufficient even for essential public servants.

The root cause is a fundamental mismatch between wages and Colorado’s soaring cost of living. The state minimum wage, currently $15.16 per hour, is tied to inflation but remains inadequate. A single worker earning minimum wage—even full time—can qualify for SNAP if they miss as little as 14 hours of work annually due to illness or other unavoidable reasons. For families, the income threshold to qualify for food assistance is even higher, pushing many working households into food insecurity.

Nationally, this is no anomaly. Over 16 million U.S. workers rely on SNAP, with the majority working full time. In Colorado alone, more than 254,000 workers received SNAP benefits in 2024, averaging 35 hours per week at $17.70 per hour—a wage still too low to cover basic needs.

Corporate defenders like Amazon point fingers at the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. Amazon claims its pay is “well over double” that rate and among the best in retail, but even doubling the federal minimum wage wouldn’t lift many full-time workers in 28 states out of SNAP eligibility.

Local efforts to raise wages have helped somewhat. Denver’s minimum wage is $19.29, Boulder’s is $16.82, and major employers like Kroger pay an average of $24.58 per hour. Yet these numbers still fail to keep pace with Colorado’s rapidly rising cost of living, leaving thousands of workers reliant on government food assistance despite their employment.

This data lays bare a harsh truth: employment alone is no shield against hunger in Colorado. The state’s wage policies and economic realities force many working families to depend on SNAP just to survive. Until wages rise to meet the true cost of living, food insecurity will remain a crisis for the working poor.