Porsche's cash bonanza for every employee will make you wish you worked there
BY MARISSA WENZKE
2017-03-23 22:27:51 UTC
In the United States, working full-time does not always mean earning even just a living wage. But in Germany, things are pretty different.
And there, Porsche is providing a whole new level of comfortably paid employment — every single one of the company's 21,000 employees is set to receive a massive €9,111 bonus, as The Drive reports. That's around $9,825.
Why? The luxury carmaker reached record sales last year — $24 billion in revenue, marking a 4 percent increase, according to a statement. So rather than piling all that extra money at that top of the corporate totem pole, Porsche decided to reward its thousands of workers.
The exact amount of each bonus is €9,111, a reference to the Porsche 911. That extra paycheck will be paid to everyone — factory workers, janitors, senior staff, engineers, cafeteria workers, and so forth.
Talk about #careergoals. That sort of generosity would be nice to find in the well-endowed corporations of America.
"For Porsche, 2016 was an eventful, emotional and, above all, highly successful year," Oliver Blume, chairman of the executive board of Porsche AG, said in a statement. "The expertise and passion of our staff forms the basis of a successful future for Porsche."
Most successful year in the company’s history: Employees at #Porsche AG will receive a voluntary bonus. More info:
https://t.co/3uv6nqsggt pic.twitter.com/ktMTeGwWi5
— Porsche Newsroom (@PorscheNewsroom) March 22, 2017
Of course, the company itself isn't the only one to thank for such a generous offering. Labor policies in Germany are remarkably different from those in the U.S. These days, Germany has stronger unions and labor representation at the highest levels of power in large companies.
Groups called "works councils" offer employees the opportunity to take part in their company's top decision-making. This happens through a labor representative that they elect. And that's a system that simply doesn't exist in the U.S., where executives make labor policy decisions behind closed doors.
A representative for the so-called works council negotiates things like wages and working conditions with the employer, as explained by the Worldwide Guide to Trade Unions and Works Councils published by Cornell University. Through this process, that person can impact working conditions that are "normally subject to the employer’s right of direction."
In the case of Porsche, a representative for the works council worked through some hard talks to arrive at that enviable bonus. "Negotiating a bonus is never easy," Uwe Hück, chair of the Group Works Council at Porsche, said in a statement. "However, this time it was particularly difficult to arrive at an outcome."
It looks like you might just have to move to Germany if you're hoping for an extra $10K in that next paycheck.
