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$55 million investment: Lowe’s to offer bonuses to hourly employees to help offset inflation

Lowe’s is trying to help its employees deal with inflation and the challenging economic outlook.

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The home improvement retailer is giving hourly, front-line employees incremental bonuses in the current quarter, The Washington Post reported.

The total of the bonuses is expected to be $55 million.

Lowe’s has about 300,000 associates, CBS News reported.

The extra money will help offset the high cost of food, gas and housing, and will be a retention bonus that will help the company keep employees.

“The labor movement is very tight and they’re afraid of losing their workforce,” Larry Harris, a chaired professor of finance at USC Marshall School of Business, told CBS News. “So they’re providing bonuses, additional benefits, they may increase wages — all this is designed to make it more attractive to remain a worker at Lowe’s.”

But bonuses don’t take the place of a raise because it’s typically a one-time payout that is, as in the situation at Lowe’s, usually taxed, the Post reported.

Lowe’s is also giving employees limited-time discounts of up to 20% on household and cleaning purchases, NBC News reported.

Lowe’s is not the only company offering bonuses to help their employees during these tough financial times.

CBS News reported Microsoft, ExxonMobile, Walmart and USAA are among the companies that are giving bonuses, pay raises and gift cards to supplement workers’ wages at a time that, according to the Brookings Institute, many companies are still not paying workers a living wage.

The bonuses offered by Lowe’s will be paid on Sept. 9, but the company did not say how much each employee will get, the Post reported.