The finding comes from a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm.
For the report, the firm surveyed 202 U.S.-based companies of various sizes and industries in November, including employers in healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
Thirty-four percent of employers surveyed are not awarding a bonus in 2023, 2% of which awarded one in 2022. This is higher than the 27% who did not hand out year-end bonuses last year and the highest rate of companies not doing so since 36% of companies opted not to give out year-end bonuses in 2019.
The report also found that:
- Fifteen percent of employers are lowering the value of the bonus, up from 11% that did so last year.
- Twenty-four percent of employers plan to award a non-monetary or nominal award, down from 29% that reported this in 2022 and 35% that reported this in 2021.
“As companies enter 2024, they are doing away with the small tokens of appreciation in favor of saving money during a time [of] perceived economic softness,” Andrew Challenger, workplace and labor expert and senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the report.
Of the employers that award a year-end/holiday bonus, perks or gifts to employees, 76% said the monetary value of the year-end bonus will be about the same as 2022, according to the report. Nine percent said they will increase bonuses in 2023, up from 4% of companies that increased bonuses last year, and 27% of the 66% of companies offering bonuses this year said they occur at other times of the year.
