Corporations don't give welfare. Democrats give welfare. You can't blame corporations for what Democrat politicians do.
Democrats aren't the ones who are using "earned income credits" to subsidize the incomes of poor workers. That's a Republican program. Every time Democrats ask for a minimum wage hike, Republicans respond that an increase in the earned income credit would do the same thing without forcing corporations to raise prices. The federal minimum wage hasn't been raised in over 10 years.
The problem with using the earned income credits instead of increases to the minimum wage is that it shifts the burden of providing for the working poor from their employers, to the middle class. Furthermore, it's an expensive way of doing it. The feds have to collect the taxes, decide who qualifies for EIC's, and then issue refund checks. If employers paid higher wages, it would eliminate all of this bureaucracy, which is supposedly what right wingers want. The poor would get more, and the middle class would be left alone. Yes, prices might go up slightly, but considering that until this year, each tax payer in the US was financing Walmart employees to the tune of $2500 per year, even if they never set foot in a Walmart store or purchased anything there.
This is just one of the ways that Republicans fleeced the middle class while blaming the poor.