Land Cruiser

Make
Toyota
Segment
SUV

Henry Ford is regularly lauded as a wise capitalist because he paid his factory workers enough money to buy cars of their own, further feeding the Model T buying frenzy that took place at the time. And now, even in the time of outsourcing and high levels of income inequality, Porsche appears to be passing on its success to its employees, giving 21,000 of its workers a massive bonus following the company's most successful year ever, a feat it accomplished mainly because of the Macan.

In 2016, Porsche managed to increase deliveries by 6% for a total of 237,778 vehicles moved by the end of the year. This raked in €22.3 billion in revenue, which upped the automaker's money intake stream by 4%. And then, we heard about how massive Porsche's profit margin was when news got out that the automaker pockets an absurd $17,225 in profit per vehicle it sells. To thank its hardworking employees, Porsche has set aside €9,111 ($9,845 at current exchange rates) to reward 21,000 of its 27,612 employees and celebrate the record. The payout will be split into two parts, with €8,411 being paid out directly to reward staff performance and €700 being contributed to the Porsche VarioRente pension or into individual pensions.

Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, had a few words of celebration. "For Porsche, 2016 was an eventful, emotional and, above all, highly successful year. This was thanks to our employees, who enabled us to expand our attractive model range to include an array of new and exciting sports cars, such as the 911 Turbo and 911 R, the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman as well as the Panamera", he said. "The expertise and passion of our staff forms the basis of a successful future for Porsche." It seems that Porsche employees can't complain that their bosses don't care about them either because garnering that high a bonus was not an easy task.

After all, Porsche's parent company Volkswagen has been scrounging for cash to pay for Dieselgate and a leap in Porsche sales seems like an ideal area to pull money from. "On the one hand, supporting the Group is very important to me, something that leads to us taking on staff from Audi and Volkswagen," said Uwe Hück, Chair of the Group Works Council. "On the other hand, we want to reward our staff for their outstanding achievement. The result was this extraordinary and one-off, but completely justified, bonus. The aim was to show solidarity for colleagues in the Group and at the same time to thank the staff at Porsche." Thankfully negotiations seem to have gone well for all involved parties.