GM to pay some UAW hourly workers record $12,750 in profit-sharing

As a result of General Motors’ yearly gains in profits, about 42,300 U.S. hourly workers will receive a profit-sharing check of up to $12,750, GM spokesman David Caldwell said Tuesday. 

The before-taxes payout for its UAW-represented workforce is an increase from $10,250 paid out in 2021 and about $9,000 in 2020. It is a record payout, Caldwell said. The highest payout, prior to this one, was in 2016 at $12,000 per employee.

The formula

The GM-negotiated formula with the UAW for profit-sharing checks is $1,000 per every $1 billion in annual earnings before interest and taxes, or pretax profits for North America. For 2022, GM’s North America pretax profits were $12.9 billion, up from $10.3 billion a year ago. The checks are paid out in increments of $250, which is why it is $12,750 and not $12,900, Caldwell said.

If an hourly employee accrued 1,850 or more compensated hours during 2021, they would receive the full payout. Eligible workers will receive their checks on Feb. 24, Caldwell said. 

Applause from the top

CFO Paul Jacobson commended GM’s supply team for securing parts throughout the year, amid ongoing supply chain challenges and parts shortages, to keep production going.

“This paves the way for the hourly team in the U.S. to have record profit-sharing,” Jacobson said during a media call Tuesday.

What will Ford and Stellantis pay?

Ford Motor Co. reports its fourth-quarter and full-year results Thursday, Stellantis reports on Feb. 22. For 2021, Ford’s 56,000 union represented factory workers in the U.S. got profit-sharing checks averaging $7,377, a big bump from 2020, when workers received checks totaling $3,625. 

At Chrysler-parent Stellantis, the 2021 profit-sharing checks before taxes totaled $14,670, that was the largest profit-sharing amount that the company or its predecessors announced in 35 years. In 2020, the check was $8,010.

More:GM beats expectations for Q4 and full-year profits, sees continued gains in 2023

Who isn’t eligible?

In the national agreement GM has with the UAW, temporary employees are not eligible for profit-sharing. Employees at GM’s Brownstown Battery facility and DMAX diesel engine facility in Moraine, Ohio, are also not eligible as well as subsystems employees, which are typically the material-handling type jobs in assembly plants. They are UAW-represented, but they are under a different national agreement, GM told the Free Press previously.