Hazard Pay

I am a corporate bootlicker. I love working for a large company with a large amount of associates. The work that we do has been deemed essential and that means that we have had no time off this year, during a pandemic!

I am glad I got to work though, because it kept me busy and it gave me time to hone new skills in a new work environment. 

I mentioned that my company is large, and even still they decided to give EVERY associate a bonus Hazard Pay check. This shocked me considering I've never gotten a bonus before! 

The odd thing is that the ammount was roughly ~$350. I am grateful to get any bonus at all, but this ammount seems strange. It's not really a big relief if there were people that needed a large chunk of money. But again, I am super grateful to get anything! I just am not entirely sure where I will out this ammount. 

But now we get into the finance side of this situation. This payment was coded as a "One Time Gift" meaning is truly wasn't hazard pay, but really an extra bonus payment. Because if this, it is taxed at a different rate than normal income tax. I got hit with almost 37% tax, bring my take home around $230. That's a pretty big cut!

I'm not upset, because it is better than nothing, but I was hoping I could benefit from this being considered hourly pay because then I could have had 6% going into my 401(k)!