Holiday Bonuses: Good News and Bad News
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This is Your Money Matters from The Wall Street Journal. Welcome to Your Money Matters. I'm J.R. Whalen with Anne-Marie Fertoli in New York.
What is the overall good news and bad news about holiday bonuses this year?
When it comes to holiday bonuses, there's good news and bad news. The good news is the amount employees receive as a bonus is up. But on the flip side, holiday bonuses are becoming more scarce. David Alexander is president of Accounting Principles, and he joins us to discuss. So, David, in the holiday bonus and hiring survey that your company did, Accounting Principles polled 500 HR and hiring managers in the U.S., and the decline in bonuses is a real thing, but it's also coupled with salaries that are on the increase.
That's right. We saw a decline in bonuses really to a surprising degree, given how tight the labor market is right now and Certainly the salary increases are a response to this tightened labor market, but we're a little surprised to see holiday bonuses going down.
And the average bonus for people who are lucky enough to be getting one is about $1,800. That's up pretty substantially over the past two years.
That's right. When we started the survey in 2015, that number was about $850 and made its way up to about $1,100 and progressed onward to, as you say, it's $1,800 now. And so what we see are the people that are giving the bonuses really leaving the program and are continuing to throw money behind it.
Now, David, employers aren't being total scrooges here, those that are not giving out bonuses. A lot of them said in the survey that they plan to offer non-monetary items to employees in lieu of a simple cash payment.
Well, we certainly have seen that. You know, there's a big emphasis put on charitable giving, and many millennials especially have put a big emphasis on how their employers give back to the community. And so we certainly saw that in the survey with, I believe, 38% of our employers saying that they would make some sort of charitable donation. That's up from about 7% in 2016. So as you can see, a pretty significant increase there. Internally, we discussed this, and it really feels like the mood of the country with some of the recent natural disasters and some of the tragedy really leans itself more towards a year where maybe a charitable donation just seems appropriate.
So it's not just the simple charities that come around the holiday season, United Way and things like that. They're tied to news events we've seen in the past year.
I think that's right. As an example, accounting principles this year, which is not exactly on par with what we're talking about with holiday bonuses, but we made a decision as opposed to giving client gifts, our employees, our colleagues felt that it was better to give charitable donations this year to many of the charities that stepped up during the recent tough times that the country's experienced. So I can only imagine that's flooding over the bonuses as well.
Now, what if you aren't in line for a bonus but want to be considered for one? We'll tackle that in just a moment. We're speaking with Accounting Principles President David Alexander, and you're listening to Your Money Matters from The Wall Street Journal.
Welcome back, everybody. So, David, let's say I'm not in line for a bonus this year and bonuses are being paid out by my company. It is something that they do. There are some specific ways that employees can increase their likelihood of getting one. And these came out in your survey.
That's right, JR. The big thing really revolves around doing everything you can, looking to pick up extra things at work to show that you're a team player. Of course, attitude is everything, and employers really want to reward people that they feel are pulling along with the company's mission and the team's mission. And then, lastly, I think it can be as simple as having an opportunity to speak with your boss and ask questions. in an appropriate and a careful manner. That is a tedious subject anytime you bring up money at work and you don't want to find yourself in a negotiation, but I think there are some ways if an individual is careful that they can bring that subject up.
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