GM Hourly Workers Earn Huge Profit-Sharing Payouts

About 48,000 eligible employees at General Motors are in line for record-high profit-sharing checks following today’s release of the company’s financial results. Hourly workers could take home up to $14,500 in bonuses.

That’s about two grand more per qualifying employee than recent years, when folks saw profit-sharing largesse of up to $12,750 in 2023 and $12,250 last year. Mike Booth, a veep at the UAW, says members should expect to get their bonuses by the end of February. 

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Mary Barra said the payouts will amount to approximately $640 million. Basic math teaches us that number divided by the number of eligible hourly workers ciphers out to approximately $13,300 each, suggesting many will be getting the maximum payout or close to it. That sum is said to be equal to more than two months of extra pay on average for members of the UAW-represented team.

According to The Detroit News, employees receive about $1,000 for every $1 billion the company makes; GM is said to have made roughly $14.25 billion in North America last year. There used to be a 12 grand cap on profit sharing payouts but that vanished about five years ago during company negotiations.

Last year, General Motors expanded overall sales by 4 percent to 2.7 million vehicles, its highest total since the 2019 calendar year with an estimated market share of 16.5 percent. The average transaction price in the last quarter was reported by The General to be nearly $53,000. As our own Chris Teague told us earlier, the company also  made more than it spent on EVs in 2024.

Your author does not expect this publication to deposit $14,500 in his bank account at the end of February, no matter how many eyeballs landed on our stories or eardrums heard our podcasts. 

[Image: General Motors]

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