Santa Comes Early in Record Bonuses

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry bonus! Salaried employees at Universal Instruments Corp. in Binghamton were given bonuses equal to three months’ pay, and hourly workers got bonuses of about 15%, somewhat less because they get overtime pay. The bonus payment--$11.6 million to 1,550 employees nationwide, most of them in New York state--was a record for the company, reflecting a year of huge demand on the maker of automation equipment for the electronics industry. Workers knew the company was doing well, but they never imagined the bonus would be so large, she said. For engineers with a salary of $50,000, the bonus was about $12,000 before taxes.