Optics. Corps can appear to approve of trump, giving them lobbying positions. It costs less than raising salaries. The employee doesn't get that much - on a 1000 dollar Bobby's it is well less than a hundred a month, and taxed at the highest rate generally (though they should recoup a bit of that.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

Also, corporations are happy with the tax law and they want the plebes to vote Trump again. So throw a little money at the plebes and hope that they will thank trump in 2020.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

    Plenty of the companies are also raising wages. IMO the timing was just right on the tax law to coincide with labor shortages and upward pressure on employee compensation, so some of these changes were probably planned.

THIS ^
Headhunter here. The labor market is the toughest I have ever seen in 18 years of recruiting.

In your opinion, what's the best way for someone to ask for and receive a wage increase right now without changing companies? I'm paid a fair wage for what I do, but could go elsewhere and make a good bit more. The work/life balance, time flexibility, and getting treated well keep me at my company and have kept me from accepting or pursuing external opportunities that have came my way. However, wages have been a bit stagnant for the last few years and I'd like to try to rectify that to some degree if my upcoming increase isn't fantastic. How does a person do that without going through the hassle of interviewing elsewhere, receiving an offer, and then asking for a retention increase? That's a game I don't feel like playing.

Depending on when they announced it and their year end, the Company will have an expense (i.e. reduced income) when the rate is 35%. Waiting till next year its 21%. Better to accrue it when the rate is higher.

Assume income of 100 and a bonus of 10.

This year Income before bonus is 100 - 35% tax - Net income is 65,

Pay a bonus. Income drops to 90 - 35% tax 58.5


Next year - Income is 100 - 21% tax Net income is 79.

Pay a bonus. Income drops to 90 - 21% tax - 71.7


2 year total income - 136.7 paying bonus next year

2 year total income 137.5 paying the bonus this year.

Or it could just be the companies had a good year and want to give back. One of the companies my wife works with (HR) just gave a $1k bonus to every employee. CEO actually stood up and said in the employee meeting "do you know we have in common with xyz companies that have been in the news lately.....?" About 125 employees with half making less than $40k base. Apparently there was much hugging and high-fiving.

It's great that people who need it are getting a bit of a bonus. But this is something we cannot forget amidst the news of people getting $1k -- it's people like those who work at your wife's company who aren't making much money and have likely been stuck in stagnant wages for several years while pay toward the top of the ladder has grown tremendously. While $1k is a nice little one-time hit, it doesn't go far. Taking the opportunity to increase wages and make up for increases not keeping up with inflation would do much more for the employees and longer-term buying power for a trickle up effect (term intentionally used) than the equivalent of a one-time ~$675 after taxes. Hopefully that happens and organizations take this opportunity to do that across their employee base and not just those who were making less than the new minimum wage at those organizations. Time will tell, but these bonuses and minimum wage increases is a nice place to start.

Some one making 40k is not paying 32.5 percent taxes.

Fine, say it's ~25% between state and federal. You mean you're going to dismiss the entire point over $75? Like that extra $75.00 is going to turn it into a life changing event?

Well. 40k and a 24k standard deduction drops taxible income to 16k.

16k is the 10 percent bracket ( I think))

10 percent of 16k is 1,600 tax on 40k of income is about 4 percent.

So that 1k is 960 dollars.

That seems pretty good to me.

Agree raises are also great, but the 1k isn’t a crumb.

How many employees? What's the culture? Because how to ask for an increase depends on lots of things. Often, a larger employer will already know if there are wage pressures, as turnover and their ability to hire may be impacted by that.

But sometimes it's just a matter of asking and making a persuasive, albeit respectful, case. And you don't have to be out interviewing to do that. In fact, trying to leverage another offer in order to get an increase can backfire. Even if you're a valued employee, there are still plenty of employers and managers who will see that and tell you to take the other job. They think, with some merit, that an employee who tries to leverage another job for an increase isn't long for the job anyway.

Yeah, it’s so awesome!

After tax pay increase of $0.46 an hour!!!

Oh wait, not a pay increase. A one time bonus!!!

All hail Trump!!!

This is solely to make stupid people vote Trump.

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

I do this with some frequency. When we are going really well it's nice to share it with the employees. I don't want to give them a raise because their salaries are competitive and there's no guarantee we'll be going this well 6 months from now. But while I'm feeling good and we're flush with cash I want them to know they had a part in that and for them to reap some of the benefits too. $1000 across the board. I have about 60 employees making from $10 to $25 per hour.

That's a creative way of pushing it to the end of year effective rate to make it appear that the gap is wider than the $75 I conceded. It's not taxed in the paycheck with that standard deduction in mind, so we're likely looking at closer to $650-750 for most employees when they initially receive the bonus. End of year sorts itself out.

But that does raise another interesting point -- companies paying those bonuses end of year 2017 and realizing the write off while under the 35% rate benefited more than their employees whose standard deduction was less in 2018. Had they waited to pay it in 2018 instead their employees would have benefited more. Not a complaint, but not something to overlook with this talk of "benevolence" on the part of these companies.

Conservatively speaking, if that $40k employee experienced increases of just 1% less than they really should have in an economy whose wages were stagnating, what the employer paid out with the $1k is still only ~30% or so of what they should have been paying had they given fair wage increases. Sure, the $1k is great for what it is, but it should just be a start to fully rewarding the workforce and permanently making up for what was withheld through wage stagnation.

My guess is they accrue the bonus in 2017 and pay it in 2018.

Both win.

You make really good points and there has been a year or two over the 15 years where they did not give raises. Every other year it has been =<3%. However, this company has the least turnover of any my wife has ever worked with. Their medical is out of this world good even with some very serious claims over those 15 years. Sales gets an opportunity at Presidents Club which the average is usually 75% attendance (don't get me started on that). All non-sales employees get a paid 3-week sabbatical for every 5 years of employment. Lots of employee engagement activities.

Those perks sound like fine ways of making up for things and it sounds like the employees notice it. A truly healthy benefits package isn't something to overlook as part of overall compensation, but a lot of people do. We're now in a situation where we're paying more for insurance and getting far less coverage and had a pretty healthy drop in employer retirement contributions, because Mrs. MWR's company downsized and we're now on my benefits until she's in something else. But she could have left there and had a better salary elsewhere, with the tradeoff of benefits more like mine, so it was worth it in a lot of ways for her to stay where she was. Companies like that and your wife's are probably truly great places to be, even if they pay a salary less than average. It sticks in my craw to see places like the Wal Marts and AT&Ts of the world that are getting this sudden accolade now for the $1k, so I hope those places use this as a starting point.

I received my $1000 just after Christmas, in 2017.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

My company puts money monthly into an end of year bonus that everyone can see. However, when we have good months there are pizza days, free shirts, etc. What you do is how it should be. People need to be recognized for the good times but also realize, it isn't always a good time and some things cannot be afforded.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

And herein lies the problem. It's amazing how entitled people are when their companies are falling apart. I can certainly see their plight when executives are taking huge bonuses and leave with parachutes before the collapse. Not surprisingly, I find a direct correlation with age and the ability to understand this.

This is what I never understood about union and management negotiations. It is always an "us against them," "all or nothing" attitude. If it were looked at as, when times are good we all benefit and when it's not, we don't.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.