President Donald Trump took a victory lap on day No. 335 of his presidency – a day wherein Trump reportedly asked White House staff to praise him personally for getting the tax reform bill passed. As reported by the Washington Post , the tax cut celebration seen in the above video took place at the South Portico of the White House, with Republicans showing plenty of smiles as Trump spoke of the $1.5 trillion tax cut. During his speech, Trump also shared the news that AT&T planned to give $1,000 bonuses to more than 200,000 employees, as reported by The Hill .
Soon thereafter, news about other companies dolling out $1,000 bonuses to their employees began to break and people turned to social media to share the news. Using search tactics such as searching for “$1,000 bonus” coupled with terms like “I got” or “I received” turned up Twitter posts like those below, with people either celebrating companies giving out $1,000 bonuses or decrying those firms for allegedly using the tax cut as a publicity stunt.
As reported by Fox News Research in the below tweet, Fifth Third Bancorp also promised $1,000 employee bonuses as other companies listed promised to increase their hiring or investment efforts. However, not everyone is happy about the news of companies giving a $1,000 bonus to their employees.
Pledges After GOP Tax Cuts: •AT&T: Invest $1B in US; $1,000 employee bonus •Boeing: $300M investment •CVS: Hire 3,000 workers •FedEx: Increase hiring •Fifth Third Bancorp: Minimum wage to $15; $1,000 employee bonus •Wells Fargo: Minimum wage to $15; $400M to nonprofits pic.twitter.com/5CVNaQz8b9
— Fox News Research (@FoxNewsResearch) December 20, 2017
According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, Comcast is also giving $1,000 bonuses to employees, which includes NBC and MSNBC journalists.
Journalists at NBC/MSNBC are among the Comcast employees getting $1,000 bonuses “based on the passage of tax reform and the FCC’s action on broadband.” ( https://t.co/PXYkLqMrgH ) https://t.co/JXgYK4W0GT
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 21, 2017
Financial pundits are digging into the fine print about the promises of firms like Fifth Third Bancorp promising to raise their hourly wage to $15 and wondering about the long-term effect upon the nation’s deficit as a result of the tax cut. Other people are writing about their shock at the alleged high tax rate that their $1,000 bonus is incurring.
Searching for “my $1,000 bonus” results in claims that the $1,000 bonus was taxed at a 33 percent rate.
I’m very grateful for my $1,000 bonus. With that being said how in the hell can they tax it at 33% ?????..
— THEREALKAMEL? #D4L? (@Kamel3481) December 20, 2017
It’s crazy, Christmas time and $1,000 bonus. I got one of those last week before they passed tax reform. I got one last year too. Funny how tax reform isn’t needed to give a bonus.
— Maverly (@mavwc) December 21, 2017
The fact that I got 1,000 dollar bonus at work but got 400 dollars taken out for taxes <<<< ??
— Sara…hi?? (@Sarahilssb) December 20, 2017
Folks like Dan Primack of Axios are calling the $1,000 bonuses a publicity move, in light of the huge profits that companies like AT&T enjoy, with claims that a tax cut was not needed in order to provide employees with $1,000 Christmas bonuses.
Yes, it is commendable that AT&T is giving its employees a $1,000 bonus. But it’s $200 million, for a company that had $13 billion in profit last year. Or, put another way, it didn’t need tax cut to do it. This is PR.
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) December 20, 2017
As a result of what some view is a PR stunt or ploy, the hashtag # BoycottATT has emerged with renewed fervor.
