WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Best Buy announced $1,000 bonuses for full-time employees and $500 bonuses for part-time employees, reaching 100,000 workers.

With this announcement, the line of companies announcing bonuses, raises, better benefits, new hiring, and increased investments is now longer than the Black Friday line at Best Buy, with over 300 other companies passing on these benefits to their employees as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Best Buy joins the several other major U.S. companies that have announced these changes in response to the new tax law this week alone including:

  • Exxon Mobil pledged to invest an additional $50 billion in the U.S. to fuel job creation and expansion.
  • Cigna announced a raise in their minimum wage to $16 an hour, an additional $15 million for employee raises, and a $30 million investment to their 401(k) program.
  • UPS delivered an announcement of a $12 billion investment to expand, increase pension funding, and enhance shareowner value.
  • Lowe’s announced $1,000 bonuses for more than 260,000 hourly employees.
  • Hostess whipped up $750 bonuses for their employees, a $500 401(k) contribution per employee, and a year’s worth of free Hostess products for their workers.
  • Charter Communications announced a new $15 minimum wage, and reaffirmed their pledge to add 20,000 jobs and invest $25 billion in infrastructure.

Will Democrats stand by their Leader’s comments and tell workers that these increases in take-home pay are “crumbs” and a “dark cloud?”

To see the full announcement from Best Buy, click here or see below.

To see the growing number of companies increasing wages, investments, jobs, and bonuses because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, click here.
Minneapolis StarTribune: Best Buy giving bonuses because of corporate tax cuts
By Kavita Kumar
February 2, 2018

Best Buy is the latest major corporation to hand out worker bonuses and to make additional charitable donations as a result of the recently passed corporate tax cuts.

In a letter to employees Friday, CEO Hubert Joly said full-time workers will receive a one-time bonus of $1,000 and part-timers, $500.

All permanent employees who are not on an existing bonus plan will receive the additional funds. The bonuses will show up in workers’ paychecks this month.

In all, more than 100,000 of Best Buy’s 125,000 employees in the U.S., Mexico and Canada are expected to receive the extra cash.

In addition, the Richfield-based retailer is making a one-time contribution of $20 million to the Best Buy Foundation to help further expand its teen tech centers and Geek Squad academies across the United States. A portion also will be used to create a nationwide employee volunteer program aimed at teenagers and technology.

“Our goal was simple: to say ‘thank you’ to more than 100,000 of our employees and help accelerate our work to bring much needed technology training to 1 million underserved teens a year,” said Jeff Shelman, a Best Buy spokesman.

In recent days, other major retailers including Lowe’s, Home Depot and Walmart have also said they will give bonuses, expand benefits and raise wages in light of the tax measures. Walmart said last month it will raise its starting wage for hourly employees to $11 and Lowe’s said it would give one-time bonuses of up to $1,000 to workers based on their length of service.

In Minnesota, U.S. Bancorp and TCF Financial have also handed out bonuses to workers and increased charitable donations. U.S. Bank said it would raise the minimum wage of its hourly employees to $15. Wells Fargo, which has a large corporate presence in the Twin Cities, also raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour after President Donald Trump signed the tax law and said it would donate $400 million to nonprofits.

And St. Paul-based Ecolab has said it will make a $25 million contribution to its ­corporate foundation.