All 21,000 Porsche Employees in Germany to Receive €9,111 Bonus
Yes, that’s an allusion to exactly what you think.
2016 was a good year for Porsche. Not only did the carmaker set a new sales record last year (largely on the back of the Macan and Cayenne), but Porsche racked up massive profits as a result—more than $17,000 per car sold. And while some companies might be content to redistribute that money back to shareholders or pass it over to executives, Porsche is taking a more generous tact. Every one of the carmaker's roughly 21,000 employees in Germany will be awarded a bonus of €9,111. In case you're feeling rather dense this morning, yes, that's an allusion to the Porsche 911.
And when we say "every employee," we mean it. That €9,111 (which works out to about $9,822 at today's exchange rates) will be issued to every employee, from the senior staff and engineers down to the line workers, janitors, and cafeteria workers.
For reference, the average annual wage in Germany in 2015 was $44,925, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Handing out four-figure bonuses isn't new to Porsche. Last year, the carmaker gave every German employee €8,911 in extra cash. But the greater profits raked in last year meant Porsche could finally bump its bonus figure up high enough to move "911" to the first three digits.
But convincing the VW Group brass that the carmaker's employees deserved such a big chunk of cash—especially compared to the bonuses handed out at other parts of the massive auto conglomerate—wasn't easy, according to Uwe Hück, Chair of the Group Works Council. "Negotiating a bonus is never easy. However, this time it was particularly difficult to arrive at an outcome," Hück said in a statement. "In the end, no one in our large VW family received anywhere near as large a bonus as our employees at Porsche."
