How much for a Christmas bonus?

S

sinead

Registered User
Messages
21
Help..... Second Christmas in business but first as an employer and I am not sure what the "norm" for a Christmas bonus is....

I've two excellent staff members one started 5th Sept and works part time and the other started 10th Oct and works full time

Any suggestions as I don't want to be too stingy but don't want to set the standard to high
 
The norm in any job I've had over the past 20 years or so has been precisely €0. Thankfully, in most cases, the normal remuneration/benefits package has more than made up for the lack of such bonuses.
 
With the company I am with, the Christmas bonus is your contracted hours. So I get 12 hrs Christmas bonus. To qualify for Christmas bonus you need to be 6 months with the company in permanent employment but thats just my employers............have plenty of mates that dont get a cent extra so anything would be a bonus to them !
 
My experience is bonus for permanent full time staff with the co longer than 6 months equal to one weeks salary subject to owners/mgmt being satisfied with that employees performance during the year. Goes down very well. Excellent for morale! Hope this helps.
 
Like Clubman, my christmas bonus is €0. The updide is that there is no comparing of bonuses or recrimination regarding relative bounuses.

aj
 
The only time I have got an Xmas bonus was when I stacked shelves in Dunnes Stores.

Is there a precedent for such a bonus in your line of work/business? Would an Xmas lunch/dinner not be just as appropriate to say 'thanks'?
 
got my bonus yesterday €600 plus christmas party will be one night away all paid for
 
You could just buy them a gift.

There seems to be no standard practice for Christmas bonuses. I would say they are more appropriate to people on very low wages. I know several people on very high salaries whose bonuses are less than €100, if anything.
 
You could give them gift vouchers up to a value of €250 euro each. This is a revenue approved way of paying bonuses to staff and as such is tax free, i.e. if you pay them €250 they will be taxed on that whereas €250 vouchers is tax free.

C
 
They're with you a very short time to be getting Christmas bonuses aren't they? How about getting them a voucher for a restaurant or something, small amount but a nice gesture.
 
Hi,

we get a really nice xmas hamper - prob only worth about €100/200 but I appreciate it more than getting the cash.
 
never had more than €0 myself... oh wait , we got a cheap hamper a few years back...
 
Don't forget that an employer can give bonuses of up to €250 in value (cash or in kind) free of BIK income tax/PRSI liabilities.See section 2.3 of [broken link removed] and note that the €100 amount mentioned has been superceded by the higher €250 amount since the guide was published.
 
Thank you for all your replies. Isn’t amazing how much it differs from company to company.

I agree they are not working for me that long but they have put in a huge amount of work since starting working here and as a result have increases sales around 70% so I wanted to thank them both.

Over the years I have worked in some companies where I got a bonus (of some sort) and then I worked in companies where I got nothing and regardless of what I got it was always nicer to get something rather than nothing!!

I am out this afternoon to look at hampers or failing that I’m going to get a one for all gift voucher which is nearly as good as cash.

Thanks again and happy Christmas to you all
 
Personally, I'd prefer a decent guaranteed remuneration package all year round than non guaranteed/discretionary bonuses at Christmas and maybe other times of the year.
 
"Personally, I'd prefer a decent guaranteed remuneration package all year round than non guaranteed/discretionary bonuses at Christmas" - but would you not prefer a decent guaranteed remuneration package all year round *and* a non guaranteed/discretionary bonuses at Christmas to either of the above ?

z
 
got 2 bottles of wine (very poor) one year. Everyone in the entire company got the same
 
I don't know if it's still prevalent, but when I worked in France a lot of employers (not mine, though ) used to operate a system called the '13th month' — i.e. they would pay employees 1/13th of their annual salary each month and then a double payment in December.

OK, it's not really a 'bonus', depending on which way you look at it — and obviously it doesn't really help the original poster, here — but it did seem to generate a certain amount of goodwill, and I'd imagine a lot of people found it very practical from the point of view of coping with the dreaded January credit card bill...

Sinéad, I think Clubman has a point — if you can put a reasonably accurate figure on the extra money your company is making directly as a result of these two employees, maybe you could consider giving them a small raise, or some kind of commission, or a quarterly performance-related bonus? I'd imagine a lot of new employees would expect to have some kind of salary review within a year of taking up employment, and all the more so if your two are (presumably) aware of the extra money that they're making for you?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register