“This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs,” Randall Stephenson, the chairman and chief executive of AT&T, said last year, as the company announced plans to award worker bonuses and increase capital spending.
Bank of America’s chief executive, Brian Moynihan, told workers in a memo last year that the new law would reduce the bank’s tax rate, and that “in the spirit of shared success, we intend to pass some of those benefits along immediately” to workers.
Some companies added workers and raised wages, while others cut jobs.
Job creation accelerated across the economy this year, compared to 2017, including at several large companies that celebrated the tax cuts by expanding hiring plans. But strong growth has not spared the jobs of thousands of American workers at large companies where executives have cited automation, outsourcing and product-line restructuring to explain why they reduced employment in a year when tax cuts raised their profit margins.
After the law was approved, Apple promised to add 20,000 domestic jobs over the next five years, along with making other investments in the United States. So far, it is on track: It added 6,000 employees in 2018. (It also announced a $100 billion stock buyback program and a dividend increase worth $2 billion.)
Walmart increased its starting wage to $11 an hour, gave bonuses of up to $1,000 each for associates and expanded some worker benefits like parental leave. The wage increase amounted to $300 million more than the company had planned before the cuts. Its employment levels have not changed over the year.
Other companies have cut workers, even as they enjoy high profits and big tax windfalls. Bank of America gave bonuses of $1,000 last year, which it attributed to the law, and said this fall that soaring profits will spur a second round of bonuses. Its dividend recently jumped by 44 percent, and it has announced $20 billion in stock buybacks since the law passed.
Yet financial filings show it has cut 5,000 jobs this year, continuing a downward employment trend that dates to 2010, when Mr. Moynihan took over as chief executive. Technological changes, including a rise in mobile banking, have resulted in 100,000 jobs being eliminated during his time at the helm, Mr. Moynihan said this year.
from Just News Update http://bit.ly/2V7INGN
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