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Verizon Using Some Tax Savings to Give Each Employee 50 Shares

Verizon Using Some Tax Savings to Give Each Employee 50 Shares

(Bloomberg) -- Verizon Communications Inc. said it will give employees 50 shares of stock each, a $380 million bonus that the company said is the result of federal tax reform.

The share grant, which will vest over two years, will be available to all of the company’s employees, with the exception of about 2,500 senior executives, a Verizon spokesman said Tuesday. Part-time employees will get 25 shares.

With the stock currently trading at about $53, the award amounts to more than $2,600 per worker. Verizon employed 155,400 workers at the end of the fourth quarter with about 153,000 eligible for the grant, the company said. CNBC reported on the news earlier Tuesday.

Verizon joins a growing list of companies passing on some of the windfall from U.S. tax reform, including rival AT&T Inc., which is giving workers a $1,000 bonus. Retailers including Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have announced pay raises, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV will send $2,000 checks to about 60,000 U.S. workers.

Verizon also plans to increase its contributions to the Verizon Foundation by as much as $300 million over the next two years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum, Jessica Brice

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