As noted in the days after Congressional Republicans passed their tax cut legislation, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned that passage of the bill would be “Armageddon.” And indeed, reports of anguish and financial ruin have arrived and been collected here and here. The Christmas holiday brought no respite, as even more companies announced how they would be punishing their workers with bonuses and raises to maximize the pain and suffering caused by the apocalypse-inducing legislation.
Central Pacific Bank has become the fourth local financial institution to announce it will give holiday bonuses to employees and increase its minimum wage.
The state’s fourth-largest bank, which has about 850 employees, said late Sunday afternoon that it will provide a $1,000 bonus to all of its workforce with the exception of executives on its managing committee. The bank said the bonuses will be paid on Friday and will be in addition to the normal annual or quarterly bonuses it provides based on individual and company performances.
In addition, the bank said it will be increasing its starting pay rate to $15.25 an hour from $12 an hour starting Jan. 1 for about 126 employees. Central Pacific also said it will increase the pay for other wage “progression” positions to maintain a proportionate spread between those positions and the entry level positions where the minimum wage is being raised to $15.25 an hour.
Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. announced that in recognition of the contribution of the company’s employees to the ongoing success of Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. and the positive impact the changes in tax laws will have on the company, a special bonus for employees.
All full-time employees will receive a special bonus of $1,000 and employees classified as part-time will receive a $500 bonus. Executive management will not participate in this special bonus.
The bonus will be paid to employees as soon as the new tax tables are released in 2018 so that employees may receive the full benefit of the reduction in tax rates.
Express Employment Professionals nonexecutive employees in Oklahoma City each will receive a $2,000 bonus before the end of the year, CEO Bob Funke said Tuesday.
Funke said the bonus is in part because of the company’s expected savings from the tax reform legislation Congress passed last week.
“We wanted to show our appreciation for our employees for doing such a good job this year,” Funke told The Oklahoman on Tuesday. “It’s our privilege to be able to give back to our employees.”
The bonus will be provided to the more than 200 nonexecutive employees at Express Employment Professionals’ Oklahoma City headquarters.
Just a bit north of there, in Iowa:
As a result of the passage of the tax relief bill this week, Ohnward Bancshares has announced it will pay a $1,000 tax relief, holiday bonus to every company employee.
This bonus is separate, and, in addition to, normal bonuses received based on company performance.
Pinnacle Bank president Dillon Retzlaff said company-wide, all 2,000 full-time employees — including all 12 in Iowa — received the $1,000 special bonus and part-timers received a $500 bonus.
Retzlaff broke the good news to his employees via an email and then walked out of his office to see their reactions.
“They reacted very well,” he said. “I saw some tears of joy, a lot of unexpected happiness; it was really fun to do that before Christmas. I think we caught them off guard.”
Retzlaff said it “was the best feeling in the world” to be able to tell his staff they were being given this bonus this year.
See? See! Democrats warned that if Republicans passed the tax cut, we would see ordinary employees crying over it, and the prediction came true!
It just keeps going and going – all the way east in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:
Nearly three-fourths of BB&T Corp.’s employees will get a one-time $1,200 bonus in January as part of the bank’s response to the corporate tax rate cut signed into law Friday by President Donald Trump.
The tax cut reduces corporate rates from 35 percent to 21 percent.
About 27,000 BB&T employees will receive the bonus. Most of them are not eligible for incentives or commissions, BB&T said. The bank had 37,189 employees as of Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing.
The bank also will raise its minimum hourly wage to $15 from $12 on Jan. 1, as well as provide $100 million to the bank’s philanthropic fund.
Just think, America. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress did everything they could to stop this Armageddon from befalling you, but they just didn’t have the votes. Everyone must remember this on Election Day 2018!