Half of Amazon workers struggle to afford food and rent as crisis unfold, new report finds

Nearly half of frontline warehouse workers at Amazon are struggling with food and housing insecurity and having trouble in being able to pay their bills, a new report says. 
The study, published by the University of Illinois Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED), comes five years after the biggest online retailer raised minimum wages to $15 an hour.   
The study asked roughly 1,484 Amazon employees across 451 warehouses in 42 states about their economic lives. 
The financial difficulties include whether they had to take unpaid time off from work due to pain or exhaustion, relied on government assistance, or were worried in paying rent or mortgage payments. 
It found about 53 percent of workers said they experienced food insecurity in the past three months, while 48 percent said they experienced difficulties in paying rent or housing costs. 
More than 56 percent of workers said they have trouble paying their bills over the same period, while one-thirds of workers have relied on a government assistance program such as SNAP to make ends meet. 
More than half of the workers who said they took unpaid time off due to pain or exhaustion from working were more likely to suffer from economic insecurity, especially when it comes to paying their bills and food. 
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“This research indicates just how far the goalposts have shifted. It used to be the case that big, leading firms in the economy provided a path to the middle class and relative economic security,” Dr. Sanjay Pinto, senior fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
“Our data indicate that roughly half of Amazon’s frontline warehouse workers are struggling with food and housing insecurity and being able to pay their bills. That’s not what economic security looks like.”
Amazon has long received criticism for its unsafe work practices, high rate of warehouse injuries, and shortchange employees’ pays while on leave.