After Tax Reform Passed, Hostess Offers Best Bonus Yet - If You Like Twinkies
While hundreds of other businesses have already made similar announcements in recent weeks, one iconic American company is offering its employees a uniquely sweet bonus as a result of new tax laws.
As Hostess Brands Inc. announced this week, the snack cake giant will be offering workers an alternating “product of the week” and “all employees will be eligible to take home one multi-pack of the week’s selection, every week for a year.”
That company-wide perk is in addition to a total of $1,250 in bonuses available to more than 1,000 bakery and corporate employees. The bonus is divided between $750 in cash and a $500 401k contribution.
Hostess Executive Chairman C. Dean Metropoulos sent a letter to employees announcing the incentives. Like numerous business leaders before him, he said they were made possible by a more favorable corporate tax rate signed into law late last year by President Donald Trump.
“The recent tax reform changes have given us the opportunity to review our benefit and compensation structure with an eye toward further investing in our workforce – our extraordinary team of employees who have and continue to help make Hostess so successful,” Metropoulos wrote.
According to a frequently updated list compiled by the advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform, at least 304 companies have offered employees a bonus or raise of some sort since the Republican-backed legislation passed through Congress.
Many of those announcements, including the letter Metropoulos sent Hostess employees, expressed pleasure in sharing the added capital among employees.
“As we have done in the past, the company’s management and board take great pleasure in sharing the company’s success with our employees,” Metropoulos wrote.
As The Daily Caller reported, Hostess was in a much different situation just over five years ago when it filed for bankruptcy protection.
Nearly four years later and after restructuring as a much leaner operation, the company emerged from bankruptcy in 2016 as a publicly traded company.
Greg Gutfeld, co-host of Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” suggested the Hostess bonuses illustrate a fundamental difference between the Trump and his predecessor.
“Remember, this is Hostess, who filed for bankruptcy under President Obama and even shut down under that president,” he said. “But now the tax change gives the company a chance to increase compensation, sharing the company’s success with their workers. That’s good news, even if it makes you fat.”
In 2019, Hostess will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its first product, the CupCake.
Twinkies hit the market several years later, but have since left an indelible mark on the snack-food sector. When the product returned to grocery shelves in 2013 after a months-long absence caused by the company’s bankruptcy, Hostess dubbed it the “sweetest comeback in the history of ever.”
As ABC News reported at the time, a number of retailers broke an embargo set by the company in order to offer anxious shoppers early access to the coveted cake.
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