Greggs and the vegan sausage roll bonus
Why bakers are taxed more than bankers
BONUS SEASON is usually associated more with bankers than bakers, but this year Greggs, a high-street purveyor of bread, buns and the like, gave its staff a special one-off payment of £7m ($9m). It has been a good year for the chain, which saw like-for-like sales rise by over 9% partially driven by the high-profile launch of its new vegan sausage roll; and the management decided that, as well as rewarding shareholders, the company would give employees an extra £300 in their January pay packet.
But the impact of the company’s generosity on those pay packets will be much reduced by the taxman. Greggs’ employees will face implicit marginal tax rates of up to 75%. A banker receiving £1m would, by contrast, be taxed at 47% (the top tax rate plus national insurance).
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "The sausage-roll bonus"
Britain January 18th 2020
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- Why Turkish barbers are taking over Britain’s high streets
- Britain’s 20,000 new cops won’t get the justice ministry celebrating
- How Ulster Scots and the Irish language got Northern Ireland’s government back
- Keeping Flybe aloft
- How the Conservatives won the social media campaign
- Greggs and the vegan sausage roll bonus
- Harry, Meghan and Marx
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