Elizabeth Warren asks Meta, Amazon, and others why they’re laying workers off despite tax perks
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is questioning several major employers, including Amazon (AMZN), Target (TGT), and UPS (UPS), about recent layoffs.
In letters sent Sunday to executives at Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon, Home Depot (HD), Meta (META), Nike (NKE), Verizon (VZ), Target and UPS, Warren asked the companies to detail by March 30 how much tax relief they received in 2025 following President Trump’s One Big Good Bill Act, whether they expect any tariff rebates and whether they made any contributions to Trump’s projects.
In total, companies are responsible for tens of thousands of position losses over the past few months.
Because of current economic conditions, “newly laid-off workers may be forced to take lower-paying jobs, if they can find work at all,” Warren wrote.
while overall layoff rate remains near historically low levelsEvery laid-off worker right now has to contend with one of the most tense labor markets in recent years. This is because few new jobs are added, few workers leave their current positions, and competition for entry-level jobs is fierce even among experienced professionals.
Warren questioned why companies are laying off workers even though the comprehensive tax law that took effect last summer provided new benefits to companies.
Meta, for example, “paid an effective federal income tax of just over 3.5 percent in 2025, the lowest rate on record since the company went public as Facebook in 2012,” according to Matt Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. he wrote in an analysis last month.
Reuters reported over the weekend that Meta was considering laying off up to 20% of its workforce.
“The sequence of events behind these layoffs, which comes after your company benefited from massive tax cuts due to President Trump’s tax law and posted record profits last year, raises questions about the justification for the layoffs and whether they represent another example of unchecked corporate greed encouraged by the Trump administration,” Warren wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
A Meta spokesperson told Yahoo Finance that Warren’s letter was “based on speculative reporting regarding theoretical approaches.” The other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Other companies’ reasons for dismissal vary; While some tout the productivity gains of AI, analysts point to corporate bloat, others say they just want to be more efficient.
