More than 80, 000 hourly workers at Tyson Foods’ meatpacking plants will receive between $300 and $700 each for the year-end bonus as the company on Monday said it has allotted more than $50 million on the incentive, ABC News reported.
Apart from the bonuses, the company has also approved wage hikes in several of its plants after the negotiation for new contracts was made over the past year.
Approximately, the company has spent over $500 million over the past year on wage hikes and other bonuses for its workers who were behind the plant’s operation even with the pandemic. Included in the bonuses were the $200 to compensate employees who got the COVID-19 vaccine.
From an average of an hourly $22 pay, Tyson has increased the rate to $24 on average over the past year.
Monday’s record does not count the increase and bonuses the Springdale-Arkansas-based company intends to compensate its salaried workers.
A total of $3.06 billion was earned by the company during its fiscal year even with the whopping pay and bonuses it provides to its workers. This has increased from $2.07 billion last year as their products’ demand stayed robust and the prices rose.
The rapid increase of the virus that affected its plants where workers are close to each other during the production process has affected the meatpacking industry.
At least 59, 000 meatpacking workers were infected with COVID-19 and 296 have died, according to a U.S. House report released this fall. Tyson was among the companies affected, along with Cargill, JBS, Smithfield Foods, and National Beef.
