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Source: 30dB.com – Tax%20Bill-and-Bonus
companies, which will now see a corporate tax rate of 21 percent rather than 35 percent. In a show of appreciation (and public relations), many of those companies are now handing out bonuses to employees, and Social is all for it. AT&T announced $1,000 Christmas bonuses for 200,000 employees, and Comcast similarly declared $1,000 bonuses for workers. A couple of banks—Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bancorp—said that because of the tax cuts, they would be raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour. That’s clearly welcome news, but beyond the optics, it appears that the bulk of the money Big Businesses will save is going elsewhere. “Most companies have said they’ll use the impending cash glut on stock buybacks and rising dividends, both rewards for shareholders who have sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up by 25 percent this year in preparation for this moment,” a story on Slate said. And besides the bonuses AT&T handing out, it is also firing more than 1,000 employees early next year, according to Newsweek. As journalist Matt Yglesias noted on Twitter, “To give each of America’s 125 million households a $1,000 holiday bonus would cost $125 billion. The tax bill costs $1,500 billion.” Still, no one wants to be the Grinch about bonuses, especially at this time of the year. Over the last three days, “Tax Bill + Bonus” has 74 percent positives. –Alex Shultz
Republished from 30dB
