Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | December 15, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 15 Our employees aren't on public assistance As the federal government shutdown dragged on into November, nearly 42 million Americans were at risk of losing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. While the end of the shutdown should bring those SNAP payments back online eventually, the issue certainly raised awareness around the level of food insecurity in the community. When polled online, the plurality of WBJ readers said their employees aren't reliant on public assistance. Do you have employees who are reliant on SNAP benefits or other forms of public assistance? F O C U S Median employee pay at Central Mass. public companies TJX has the lowest and Hanover Insurance Group has the highest median employee compensation of all Central Massachusetts public companies that disclose the information in the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filings. Median employee CEO-to-median- CEO at time Total CEO Company compensation employee pay ratio of SEC filing compensation The TJX Cos., in Framingham $15,002 1,565:1 Ernie Herrman $23,482,528 BJ's Wholesale Club, in Westborough $26,507 513:1 Bob Eddy $13,608,152 IPG Photonics, in Marlborough $42,185 167:1 Mark Gitin $6,700,825 Boston Scientific, in Marlborough $58,074 369:1 Michael Mahoney $21,420,801 Cognex, in Natick $78,750 100:1 Robert Willet* $7,910,823 Waters Corp., in Milford $84,397 132:1 Udit Batra $11,148,038 Hologic Inc., in Marlborough $91,871 172:1 Stephen MacMillan $15,819,261 Insulet, in Acton $96,785 137:1 Jim Hollingshead* $13,302,350 Definitive Healthcare, in Framingham $102,363 110:1 Kevin Coop $10,876,456 The Hanover Insurance Group, in Worcester $126,501 76:1 John Roche $9,550,596 *Matt Moschner took over as Cognex CEO in July, and Ashley McEvoy took over as Insulet CEO in April. Source: Individual proxy statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission No 45% Yes 32% I don't know 23% in December. Many part-time workers receiving SNAP are actively trying to find full- time work, but many big-box companies won't offer it, said Chilton. "ey want to keep people in very precarious positions so they can kind of control who does what, and it saves them a lot of money and makes their profits increase. It's a big problem," she said. As of Dec. 5, the majority of both companies' open back-office and cor- porate roles were full-time: 94% for TJX and 96% for BJ's. At the same time, 73% of TJX's open retail, distribution center, and store operation positions are part- time, and 55% of BJ's club operation roles are part-time. Because of these systemic rates of part-time work, the retail industry, along with health care, have the highest num- ber of SNAP recipients in Massachusetts: approximately 68,000 each, totalling 29% of all working SNAP recipients, according to the UMass Amherst report. Cashiers are hit the hardest, with one out of every five relying on SNAP benefits. is is partially because many of those industries' entry-level positions don't require a high-level of education or certifications, said Nathan Meyers, a fellow at the UMass Labor Center and co-author of the report. TJX addressed this in its 2024 annual report, saying failure to employ and retain enough qualified associates could adversely affect the company's perfor- mance: "We must constantly recruit new associates to fill entry level and part- time positions, which have high rates of turnover," said the TJX annual report. Anti-union structure One of the most important facts to understand why retail wages are so low is because of the absence of one key factor, Meyers said. "Unions have never had a really strong foothold in retail," he said. TJX and BJ's have established clear anti-union sentiments in their annual reports. "None of our team members are represented by a union. We consider our relations with our team members to be good," reads BJ's 2024 annual report. "Future union activities, including organizing efforts, slow-downs, or work stoppages could negatively impact our business and results of operations." TJX specifically outlines what it views as possible ramifications of unions in its annual report's operational and stra- tegic risks section. e company has a number of U.S. and Canadian distribu- tion centers with unionized associates; TJX states these could lead to several negative consequences, such as work stoppages and decreased flexibility due to labor law limitations. TJX further reports if other portions of its workforce unionize, such as its U.S. associates, the act "may subject us to additional requirements, expectations, actions, or expense." TJX and BJ's are not alone in their anti-union stances, as public and private companies with low-wage workers oen share the sentiment, said Chilton. "Unions automatically bring people together and build a level of solidarity where they can fight for higher wages and better supports," she said. "e number one thing that unions do is promote higher salaries that are living wage salaries." A heavy reliance on part-time work is a way to deter unions, Chilton said, as the less time coworkers spend with each other, the less likely they are to feel connected and empowered to organize. ese companies can get away with their low-wage, part-time work because they're able to rely on the government to provide public assistance. "Increased profits come from lower compensation, and it means that the government is pressured to prevent poverty and hunger," said Meyers. "e government is subsidizing corporate profits in that way." To take it a step further, many large private corporations rely on SNAP ben- efits to pay their own bills: BJ's annual report said the federal government's potential cut to SNAP could in turn hurt the company's sales. "Changes in state and federal laws governing the SNAP program, including reductions in program benefits, restric- tions on program eligibility, or rules on where and for what EBT cards may be used, could reduce sales at our clubs," said its annual report. Large companies operating in Massa- chusetts are reliant on SNAP to provide additional assistance to hundreds, if not thousands, of their employees, according to the UMAss Amherst report. e em- ployer with the most SNAP recipients in 2020 was Dunkin, with 1,195 employees. Amazon and Walmart both employ more than 2,000 Massachusetts residents who received SNAP benefits in 2025, according to a Boston Globe analysis of Massachusetts Department of Transi- tional Assistance data. TJX employs 589 Massachusetts residents who received SNAP this year, according to the Globe. e company employs at least 1,000 people in Central Massachusetts and 364,000 worldwide, Continued on next page Nathan Meyers, co-author of UMass Amherst's SNAP report

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