Ford workers in US and Canada will get bonuses as per a company email sent out Wednesday. The checks will be issued on March 13, with hourly workers receiving $1,000 checks, and salaried employees significantly more, according to pay grade and position in the company. However, merit pay increases for salaried workers only, promised to start April 1, have been pushed back to July 1, with Ford citing a worsening economy as the reason.
The email goes on to explain the bonus represents a doubling of last year’s incentive to hourly workers, who would not have received any bonuses under the profit-sharing plan in the contract with the UAW, as Ford lost $2.7 billion in 2007. Ford CEO Alan Mulally implemented a reward plan last year, from which the bonuses result.
“While we fell short of our market share goals in the Americas and Asia, we fully met or exceeded our objectives in every other category, namely cost performance, quality, automotive cash flow and financial results,” Mulally wrote in the email, published by the Detroit News.
Pushing the salary increases — expected to average 2.7 percent pay increase per eligible employee — back by three months will result in “significant cost-savings†to the company, according to a company spokesperson. Ford last issued merit pay increases in 2006.
Managers outside of North America will receive bonuses as well.
