Volkswagen agrees to pay workers in Germany $3,000 bonuses

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss Volkswagen’s decision to pay workers in Germany $3,000 in bonuses as an attempt to combat inflation.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Volkswagen workers-- same here-- workers-- for myself-- in Germany are getting a big bonus ahead of the holidays. The carmaker says it's reached an agreement with the country's largest labor union to pay its employees a $3,000 bonus in an attempt to combat soaring inflation. Now some of this is going to come in percentage form on top of salaries, and some of it is going to come in the form of a cash bonus early next year.

So it just-- I guess it shows, to some extent, the power of unions in Europe in particular, right? We have various union negotiations going on in various industries, railroads, here in the United States. But, you know, inflation's going up. People got to pay their workers.

BRIAN SOZZI: VW just stick some cash in an envelope? Give all this money in cash to the workers. After tax, what is it, like 1,500 bucks, whatever it is? So give them an Amex gift card or something. Tax-free, baby.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, and that's where, on the wage front, when you have as many cuts that have been moving forward or that have been announced as we've seen, especially in tech, there's going to be the severance packages inside of it, but then there's also, OK, for the people that are staying, there's still going to be this retention effort that they have to move forward with as well at a time where you've got perhaps a shattered company feel or vibe or culture right now.

BRIAN SOZZI: Nothing's free in this world. I'm sure they'll have--

[BUZZER]

--to work even harder because of those bonuses.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, I was going to say, your reward is you get to be extremely hardcore. All right, happy Thanksgiving to all of you from all of us.