Hostess Brands Inc.—which has long fed America's sweet tooth through its production of Twinkies, Ho-Hos, and Ding-Dongs—announced Wednesday that corporate and hourly employees will each receive $1,250 in bonuses because of savings being generated by the Republican tax reform initiative.
The Kansas City, Mo.-based company plans to give its 1036 employees one-time bonuses totally $1,250: $750 in cash and another $500 in 401(k) contributions. Hostess is also sweetening the deal by giving its employees a year worth of free products. Representatives from each Hostess bakery will choose a different baked good weekly and employees will receive a multipack of that item every week of the year.
Hostess directly attributed its ability to reward its employees to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was passed in December of 2017 by congressional Republicans and subsequently sighed into law by President Donald Trump.
"The recent tax reform changes have given us the opportunity to review our benefit and compensation structure with an eye toward further investing in our workforce – our extraordinary team of employees who have and continue to help make Hostess so successful. As we have done in the past, the company’s management and board take great pleasure in sharing the company’s success with our employees," said C. Dean Metropoulos, the company's executive chairman, in a released statement.
Social media users were quick to poke fun at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and congressional Democrats for their previous comments claiming bonuses as result of Republican tax cuts, like those by Hostess, were "crumbs."
PELOSI WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE CRUMBS! (sort of) The Hostess Twinkie company is giving workers $1250 in cash, 401k deposit AND weekly FREE SNACKS (ya know...with crumbs) https://t.co/dwpA9iZfuX
— Mike Opelka (@stuntbrain) February 1, 2018
Nancy was right! Hostess will LITERALLY give employees crumbs because of GOP's tax law! https://t.co/7Bfh6So2g0
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) February 1, 2018