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Comment by Clanan | Hacker News Reader

$1,000 is not laughable to most people.

If you're talking about Walmart, they announced a one-time bonus of up to $1,000. Walmart estimates that it will cost about $400 million [1], and they employ 2.3 million people [2], so the average bonus is under $200. Meanwhile Walmart will save about $1.8 billion a year in taxes, every year, thanks to the tax cut.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/wal-mart-...

[2] https://www.google.be/search?q=number+of+employees+walmart

Also is that $1,000 if you're a 20 year employee? So for 20 years of service you get a $50 gift card worth of bonus once a year? No thanks, I'll take a permanent living wage increase instead.

Walmart said it's raising it's minimum wage in addition to bonuses. And there are 163 other companies giving bonuses. But sure, it would be nice for the employees if Walmart gave more of that savings to them.

$1000 is better PR than any advertising they could have spent, but it's not even a crumb in terms of what the company is saving.

$1000 bonus is $500 after taxes. Which means, it is $40/month or $20/paycheck. It is laughable. Most employees will get $200 bonuses, which roughly will equate to $4/paycheck.

> $20/paycheck. It is laughable

And we tech people wonder why so much of the country scoffs at our echo chamber. Maybe you've never been on the lower rung of income, but an extra $40/month can be a big deal to a lot of people. Typical median household income in 2017 was $59k, so a 2% increase is meaningful.

But don't let me get in the way of your political narrative.

Where are you getting a 50% tax rate from?

Of course not, but that doesn't mean you should take a well-timed and carefully worded press release at face value.

Let's see what actually lands in whose bank accounts before we raise the praise flags.

3 car payments on 2 rent payments in a lot of the country. Its like the folks poo-pooing the Youtube folks earning a couple hundred off their channels. That little bit helps quite a lot.

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