Actually a newly qualified teacher's earnings would work out around the same, although they're not paid by the hour.

Tesco gave my husband, and other workers, £15 gift card because they work in the meat factory that supplies them with cold cooked meat. They also supply Marks and Spence and lidl. Not a thing from them.
They get nothing from the factory though, as they can get the packs of cooked meat for 50p all through the year and they sell 3 times that in some shops.

We get paid our annual bonus in January (i'm hoping for about £2k) - but we do get a $100 pre tax 'holiday gift'

To the poster that said everyone should get the same bonus; that might work in certain situations (small, relatively evenly paid workforce), however in others in really wouldn't. For two reason:

1. In many industries now the bonus scheme is not a really a 'bonus', it's a fundamental part of the employee compensation package. A lot of senior applicants wouldn't accept a job offer unless it included a bonus payment of a certain percent of their salary (though they would accept that if the company didn't meet it's targets they would get less).

2. Bonuses are used as part employee performance management. The better you perform in your role - the more bonus you receive. If everyone just got the same it would completely remove this motivation.

The problem with the tax system, and why it is so complex, is that every time a rule is introduced to help one group out a clever accountant will find a way around it. So, if everyone was allowed a 10% tax free bonus then this would just lead to people taking a cut in their base pay.

Last Xmas bonus I got was in the 80's - a crate of fosters!

Work for the Education Authority so no bonus for us.

When I nursed in the private sector we got £75 & care assts, domestics & kitchen staff got £50...until the boss decided he couldn't afford it (after buying a boat, a third house & a BMW) so nurses got £50 & the rest of the staff got diddly.

The nurses offered to pool our bonuses so they could split it because they did the most back breaking, under-appreciated work for min wage but they wouldn't take it.

My husband's place is good to anyone with 'manager' in their title even if they do less & have less responsibility than a poor schmuck who doesn't have manager in the title. It's semantics really.

Managers who have been there a year get £1000, 1yr+ £3000, 2yr+ get £10,000.

My husband's role has changed a lot over the years and has got the £1000 & £3,000 but just when I was rubbing my hands together planning a fabulous holiday the fe.ckers gave him - technically - a promotion with more responsibility but - technically - not a sodding 'management' post so he got a bloody £40 Tesco voucher with everyone else.

Ah well, better than a kick in the teeth but still...£10,000!!

Um - what promotion involves your bonus eligibility being reduced from £10,000 to £40? I assume that your husband is receiving more than £10k extra in salary as otherwise it makes no sense to accept such a 'promotion'.

Our annual bonus comes in Oct but for xmas we normally get £100 in shopping vouchers.

No, but I do get almost a fortnight off...

He doesn't get a say. He isn't actively going for 'promotions', there are no actual 'promotions', they just make up and scrap job roles on whims and tweak and extend existing roles as they wish.

It worked in his favour when they decided he would be the Business Improvement Manager because he qualified for the managers' bonus but it was scrapped, he's now got a waffley made up title and more responsibility but no manager in title so he's back to Tesco vouchers.

They'd get shot of you with no qualms if you rock the boat too much so he puts up and shuts up and the wage is pretty good so can't afford to leave.

He's talking about asking for a rise and managers bonus this year though because they've extended his role AGAIN and he's now heading a huge project which involves managing all those dept managers who are getting the big bonus while he's due to get that poxy gift card. We'll see. You may see me snivelling on advice soon that my husband has been laid off.

I doubt very much I'll ever get that holiday. A caravan break up the coast would be the best I can hope for.

Me too! And it's better than a bonus. I used to work every other Xmas Day and all day Xmas Eve & Boxing Day in the years in between so for the last few years getting 2 weeks off has been amazing.

I'm going to be a bit poor as I'm on an hourly temp role til I go back to my 'regular' job, but holy sh*t, I'm going to enjoy it

Sweet FA here, we've not even had a pay rise since 08 and this is the private sector. We do get 2 weeks off though

It's the kind of "promotion" a husband tells his greedy wife he got. The rest is in a private bank account which he probably spends on his bit on the side.

Ha ha. Hmmm...

Nah, I'm not hard to please - in another thread I posted about how embarrassingly happy I was with a freebie hamper he just brought from work. In my defence it has posh apple juice and homemade mince pies! That 10k would be wasted on me. Just wasted. Yep, probably best to spend the money on her and give me the aul' hamper.

And a newly qualified nurse's earnings would be a little bit less. Although they too, are not paid by the hour.

No bonuses in the NHS either.

Shameful on both accounts. I think teachers and nurses are both woefully underpaid.

We used to get a couple of hundred pounds extra, depending on how long you had been with the company.

Unfortunately the unions decided that discriminated against young people who had only been with the company a few years. Management responded by ditching the bonus for everyone. Now we get nothing. Well done unions.

In my experience the best way to get a pay rise is to get another job. If your employer won't pay you enough then find someone else who will.

Idiots. I'm sure the young people were delighted with losing the opportunity to earn a bigger bonus in time...what a nonsense.

We don't get a bonus but they give us £12 per head towards a Christmas meal out. You have to go though, they don't just give you the £12!

We got a pay rise last year, for the first time in 6 years - a whole 1%. And when they discovered a bit of an underspend at the end of the financial year, every employee got a £25 Sainsbury's voucher. I'd forgotten all about it until I found it in my desk the other day, so that'll buy a bottle or two of something nice to drink over the holiday.

We've done better than the people who work in the residential homes though. They've decided to shut all the offices between Xmas & NY, so we get an extra 3 days off. The poor buggers on the residential side are getting a £40 voucher instead of the extra 3 days.

Good grief, no. Bonus time is in March but it's performance related.

The company' 'gift' to us is the Christmas party where you get a meal and a few drinks. I mean, it's better than nothing, but they used to give a hamper then got rid of it because apparently it was too costly. Talk about Scrooges!

I think smaller businesses may give their employees the unheard of Christmas bonus. My profession offers performance related bonuses, all year round so, because I receive quite huge bonuses, not receiving a Christmas bonus does not really bother me.

Not in my government job.. Break up on the 23rd this year as well, so surreal.

Well as someone that works in HR I can tell you that none of the above is actually legal. The company has a obligation to provide him with a contract that sets out his role and expected compensation. They can't just make up what bonus scheme he's on and they certainly can't just dismiss him if he complains. If he took them to tribunal he would win easily.