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Senator Bernie Sanders intends to introduce legislation that would require large companies like Amazon to pay a tax to cover the cost of federal assistance for their employees, The Washington Post reports. The intention is to incentivize large corporations to pay a fair living wage.

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The bill would set a 100% tax on government assistance received by workers at companies with 500 or more employees. For example, if an Amazon worker were to get $300 in food stamps, Amazon would be taxed $300. Sanders intends to introduce the bill in the Senate on September 5.

If a bill that taxes corporations for employees' federal assistance passes, it could have profound effects on how retailers handle labor. Companies would be faced with the choice of paying a 100% tax on federal assistance for their workers or restructuring so that employees don’t require government aid. Retailers would be especially affected because of the amount of labor that warehouses and fulfillment require.

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To minimize the impact of the bill, companies could raise salaries across the board so that employees need less assistance, or they could turn to automation, like the methods in use by Walmart and Target, and let go of employees. The freed-up labor costs could then be redistributed to remaining workers to minimize their dependence on federal assistance.

This could add to Amazon’s mounting issues with its labor practices:

Worker strikes in Europe. Amazon employees in Spain launched a weeklong strikethat lasted through Prime Day in July, and employees in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and England also took part in the fight. The workers all had country-specific grievances such as wanting better salaries, more benefits, or improved sick-day policies, and they called for a boycott of Prime Day to hit the company’s bottom line.

Controversy surrounding working conditions in fulfillment centers. An undercover author reported that fulfillment center staff at a UK Amazon warehouse feared being disciplined for taking “idle time,” and were even afraid of using the toilet because of tightly monitored time requirements, according to Business Insider. Employees also reported being penalized for calling in sick, even with a doctor’s note. Amazon said it didn’t recognize the allegations as an accurate portrayal of its warehouse working conditions.

Amazon seems to be aware of its labor issues and is making a conscious effort to bolster its image. In an attempt to try to combat the negative perception of working conditions in fulfillment centers, Amazon has been paying employees to post positive messages on Twitter about what it’s like to work in warehouses, Business Insider reports.

Tweets from accounts featuring employees' names followed by “Amazon FC Ambassador” and a cardboard box emoji have been weighing in with positive messages when people tweet negative things about the company. It remains to be seen whether this effort will help the company’s image or disturb Twitter users, who may see it as inorganic propaganda.

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