Bank of America to give $1,000 bonuses to about 145,000 employees after tax overhaul

[mnhtnbb]

Source: Marketwatch


By
Rachel
Louise Ensign

Bank of America Corp. is giving $1,000 bonuses tied to the tax-overhaul bill to more than half of its 210,000 employees, making the bank the latest company to announce such a perk since the legislation passed this week.

By the end of the year, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank BAC, -0.40% plans to give the one-time bonuses to employees who earn up to $150,000 a year in total compensation, according to an internal memo from Chief Executive Brian Moynihan viewed by The Wall Street Journal. About 145,000 employees will get the perk, the memo said.

AT&T Inc. T, -0.04% and Comcast Corp. CMCSA, -0.27% said they would pay a $1,000 bonus to most of their U.S. workers—more than 300,000 people combined—once the president signs the legislation. Large lenders Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, -0.37% and Fifth Third Bancorp FITB, -0.61% said they would raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour, a minimum wage that Bank of America already pays its employees. Fifth Third also announced plans for a one-time $1,000 bonus for more than 13,500 of its 18,000 employees. Another smaller bank, Western Alliance Bancorp., also plans to raise pay and improve benefits.

Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-of-america-to-give-1000-bonuses-to-about-145000-employees-after-tax-overhaul-2017-12-22

---

Wow. The corporations are coming out big time to buy approval from their employees.

Every goddamn one of them could have afforded to do this without this tax bill.

[samnsara]

1. well thats mighty white of them!

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. That $1000 wont go far when Medicare and SS are gone, and they will be gone

unless we do something really big.

[LenaBaby61]

26. "That $1,000 wont go far when Medicare and SS are gone, and they will be gone."

THIS ^^^

[AJT]

29. They are not on either, so they won't care.

[kysrsoze]

3. A $150M one-time token is a drop in the bucket compared to the windfall they will get

This is a smokescreen covering the millions these corporations and their higher-ups are going to rake-in.

[hibbing]

4. There goes those voters

The majority will probably now be GOP for life.


Peace

[True Dough]

5. This is the frustrating part

What essentially amounts to crumbs are being distributed to the "peasants" to keep them happy and loyal but the bigger picture is far less rosy. Wish more people could see that.

[RobinA]

16. Well, At Least

until they get laid off the next time. Of wait, that will be Obama's fault.

[Angry Dragon]

6. It is not law yet............My mistake I see he did sign it today

[elmac]

7. that bonus murders over 10,000 americans every year

do to lack of health care, an extra bonus to the bonus is the 2 trillion added to the debt.

[pangaia]

8. BRIBE !!!!!!!! Hush money!

[athenasatanjesus]

9. This is an advantage republicans have always had.

The rich and powerful who control most of our jobs prefer republicans, so they are more willing to hire or promote with one in charge and when a democrat is in charge they pull a papa john, where they throw a hissy fit and threaten less hours for their employees. This also helps the stock market temporarily when the people who play it are happy.

[Doodley]

10. That's very nice, but what are they doing for their customers - paying 0.06% APR maximum interest

[Yonnie3]

11. We dreaded those bonuses.

I worked for a very large corporation back in the day. A bonus didn't count towards pension or layoff benefits. Bonuses were an indication that a wage freeze and layoffs were coming.

[old guy]

12. I never underestimate the gullibility of people,

but I believe this will not change peoples minds as to what this tax scam does. If they think it's good they will continue to think so, if they think it is bad they will take the money and still think it's bad. They would be fools not to.

[pwb]

13. 1000 dollars divided by 2040 work hours per year equals 49 cents per hour.

Helpful but really nothing to these corporations.

[GreenEyedLefty]

32. Actually it's less because bonuses are taxed at 40%.

[TexasBushwhacker]

39. Bonuses are taxed as regular income n/t

[haele]

41. Bonuses are not taxed as regular income unless attached to wages.

Bonuses are taxed from 25% (up to $500) to 30% ($500 - $2000, IME), depending on how much of a "windfall" you're getting, plus whatever your state taxes it at. And you're not paying into Social Security or FICA, either.
Lucky thing, CA only taxes bonuses as straight income, so $500 - $1K only gets taxed with an extra $5 - $10 on the bonus.
Pretty much, if it's anything over $500, it's taxed at 30%, even if it's split over paychecks - my $600 profit sharing bonus this year was split 1/2 in October and 1/2 in December, and I received a $192 check each time after state and federal taxes.

If it's added to the normal pay, it's taxed the same as if you worked enough extra hours to get paid that in OT. Which is basically, they tax it at the level your annual wages would be if every paycheck you earned was at that amount.
I hated working double time OT (>80 w week) for that reason. Double time pay always got et in taxes, as you were taxed as if you were making over $200K a year or so, even though with combined OT and DT that year, you were only making around $80K. Sure, you got a hefty refund the next year, but the money at the time would have been nice - especially since most of our OT and DT was right at the end of the tax year as the customer was trying to get tasks finished before the holidays.
Over the past 30 years, I've gotten both separate bonus checks and a bonus attached to wages - whenever they decided to pass out bonuses or profit sharing.
I always paid just over 30% tax on every bonus I got.

Haele

[C Moon]

14. I worked at a large motorcycle company...

On each voting day, they would remind employees to vote; and went one step further by suggesting how to vote because it was good for the corporation's future.

Banks and corporations don't just give out money. They are going to want that back 10-fold somehow, and I'm sure they already have that figured out. Layoffs next year, probably.

[Bengus81]

15. They'll save that several times over by not giving out raises

Watch for it...........

[BumRushDaShow]

17. THIS

Thread winner.

[deancr]

18. A runt

stunt

[Freethinker65]

19. In years past the bonuses were way more than $1000

Benefits for those making over $100K/year suck actually. High deductible self insured medical with crap family policies that can end up costing employees more than 20K against their “salary”.

[tazkcmo]

20. Just like their leader

Shitgibbon supporters love to be trickled on and there it is. It is doubtful that that light stream of $1,000 will cover the increase in their medical care or other type of benefit loss. Just as long as they get trickled on.

[cstanleytech]

21. So a 46 cent an hour raise? Woo Dee freaking dooo.

[SunSeeker]

22. Not a raise. A raise is permanent. This is a one-time, taxed pittance. nt

[cstanleytech]

23. True. nt

[SunSeeker]

24. Yes, and it will be taxed at a higher rate than their employers' profits.

[liberal_patriot_md]

25. Corporations are giving bonuses? At Christmas?

Will wonders never cease?

Seriously, why is this news? A majority of companies do this every year. $1000 is well in line with the national average for bonuses.

Companies give bonuses (as opposed to raises) as a way of rewarding employees, but also as a way to reduce their tax burden.

Additionally some of these announcements simply accelerate decisions that were already made - Wells Fargo HAS to increase their minimum wage because of a law passed in CA. They are simply accelerating the change. AT&’s “bonus” was already included as part of an agreement with the union representing telecommunications workers. In fact the union asked for $4000 based on GOP statements about the average tax benefit for middle class families - but settled for $1000.

This is like the investments and hiring actions some companies announced after Trump’s election- but were already planned or previously decided and simply re-announced to curry favor with Trump.

It’s all smoke and mirrors.

[Skittles]

27. remember when Duyba sent out those checks?

remember what came later?

[Puzzledtraveller]

34. Didn't we get those under Obama also?

honest question.

[Skittles]

35. I don't remember that

Obama didn't do gimmicks

[applegrove]

28. So only people who have jobs get a christmas windfall. That looks like

a wedge to me.

[jeffreyi]

30. Wheeeee! Parteeee!!

[wishstar]

31. AT&T's union was already negotiating raise and bonus whether or not tax deal happened

[haele]

42. AT&T also just announced they were laying off over 1K workers next year.

The bonus was paid for, one way or another.
In years past, AT&T was notorious for giving out bonuses across the workforce right before a big lay-off. Everyone I know that ever worked for AT&T said one of the reasons they quit was the stress - they'd always got nervous if they got an envelope with an end of the year/Christmas bonus, because within the next three months, they risked being selected out of their workgroup to get another envelope with a pink slip in it.

Haele

[KY_EnviroGuy]

33. Plutocracy at its finest.

Paid political ads for the GOP.

[Turbineguy]

36. They can deduct the cost

based on the current higher tax rate.

[OnlinePoker]

37. If it's anything like AT & T, expect layoff notices next

AT&T gave 1400 layoff notices just after their $1000 bonus to workers in 5 states. They'll no longer have jobs as of the beginning of January.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Lays-Off-Up-to-1400-Employees-Just-Before-Christmas-140923

[haele]

38. They were planning these bonuses months ago.

No corporation, large or small, gives out bonuses without first projecting how much impact that will have on the dividends and they need to get buy-off from the shareholders before handing out that much money.
It's great PR to hand out "end of the year" bonuses, but they already had the bonuses down as a line item last quarter.
And most of those employees will be lucky if the actually see more than 2/3rds that money in the paychecks; they're going to be taxed at a much higher rate than normal; just as if they had made time and a half every day that week.

Haele

[Bengus81]

40. Yup,it gets lumped together with their regular pay for higher taxes....

Kinda like winning a small lottery prize of say $2,000 and having it taxed at their "one fits all" rate of 30%.

[maxrandb]

43. I always thought

You just left the money on the dresser when finished with a whore

[ProfessorGAC]

44. Dollars To Donuts, ...

...they were going to give $875 bonuses anyway!

[Xolodno]

45. It gets taxed as a bonus..so...

...they'll get anywhere from $600 to $800 depending where they reside. And you can guarantee the GOP sheeple who get these bonuses and see a smaller check will blame Democrats.