Over one-third of US companies will not give year-end bonuses, survey says

Companies are wrapping up the calendar year, and according to a survey from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the share of firms that will not give out end-of-year bonuses hit just over one-third.

The overall portion of U.S. companies not providing end-of-the-year bonuses increased by seven percentage points from last year, coming in at 34% for 2023, the outplacement firm said its survey showed. The online survey took place last month and involved just over 200 U.S. companies. 

Companies "are doing away with small tokens of appreciation in favor of saving money during a time of perceived economic softness" going into 2024, Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ Andrew Challenger said. The outplacement firm also said 20% of companies had ongoing cost-saving initiatives.

For employees at companies that do participate in year-end bonuses, many will see theirs remain the same year-over-year. That will be the case for those at the over three-quarters of bonus-giving companies who indicated to the outplacement firm that they had decided not to alter the amount.

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Meanwhile, almost a quarter will change how much their year-end bonuses are worth, with an increasing share, 15%, making theirs smaller, the survey found. Those intending to boost the size of theirs amounted to 9%. 

Less year-end bonuses given by companies this year will take the form of "non-monetary or nominal awards," Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. Firms doing that fell five percentage points to 24% this year. 

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The data about the holiday bonus plans of U.S. companies came less than a week after the outplacement firm published survey results about another common year-end corporate practice – holiday parties. 

About 64% of U.S. companies had throwing face-to-face holiday festivities in their plans for marking the end of 2023, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In 2022, nearly 57% of firms had such plans.

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In a separate survey released earlier in the month, PublicSquare and RedBalloon found 42% of small business owners said they had presented their workers with Christmas bonuses in the past but "can’t afford this year." That survey with over 680 respondents occurred from Nov. 30 to Dec. 5. 

Eric Revell contributed to this report.