Particularly if you're a white male. I have a friend who was bad off, and he found it a challenge.
Seriously, though, it’s a classic chicken and egg question. Government gives “food stamps” and Medicaid to WalMart employees because WM pays most of its workers bupkis. If there were no food stamps would WM pay more because it couldn’t rely on Uncle Whiskers to subsidize them? Good question.
If there were no food stamps, it would not change WalMart salaries. If anything, there would be MORE people competing for whatever jobs they could get, and salaries would go down. People would work longer hours to make enough money to survive.
Of course, WalMart could bypass the "food stamp" criticism by hiring only students and retirees. Probably get a better class of employees as well. This is what will happen if they raise minimum wage -- places will increase their quality-requirement on new hires, to only hire those who are worth it.