Disney and Starbucks will hand $375 million in bonuses to their employees to acknowledge President Trump’s tax cuts.
The entertainment company will give $1,000 to 125,000 employees and the coffee chain will reward its staff with share awards of as much as $2,000.
Big American companies have rushed to reward their employees with bonuses and pay rises since Congress pushed through sweeping tax reforms at the end of last month. They include Apple, the iPhone maker, Walmart, the retailer, and Comcast, the cable television company.
The corporate tax rate has fallen from 35 per cent to 21 per cent. Companies also are able to benefit from a new measure that allows them to pay less tax to bring back to America cash stored in overseas havens.
Bob Iger, chief executive of Disney, said that the company would invest a further $50 million in a new education programme for employees. This, plus the bonuses, would cost Disney $175 million, he said. Only employees based in the United States will receive the $1,000 bonus.
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Starbucks will hand $2,000 share awards to store managers and $500 grants to coffee shop staff. All employees will receive a pay rise. The group also expanded its parental leave programme.
Kevin Johnson, chief executive of Starbucks, said: “Investing in our partners has long been our strategy and, due to the recent changes in US tax law, we are able to accelerate some significant partner investments.”
Starbucks did not say how much it expected to benefit from the tax cut. Credit Suisse estimates that it could save about $425 million a year.
Apple said last week that it would hand $2,500 bonuses to as many as 12,000 employees in the UK and Ireland as it shared out billions of dollars made available by the tax reforms. AT&T, the telecoms company, has promised to give each of its 200,000 staff a $1,000 bonus and Comcast has earmarked the same payout to its 100,000 staff.
The tax cuts are opposed by many Americans, polls suggest.