Lighter side: The company that gives annual bonuses in $2 notes

Employees at Nebraska’s Hornady Manufacturing got a nice little bonus with last Friday’s pay - about $61,000 worth of $2 bills was shared between its more than 300 employees.

It’s the third year in a row the company has given its staff annual bonuses in the form of tiny amounts. In some ways, it’s a retaliation to accusations that the company doesn’t support the community, a spokesperson told the World-Herald News Service.

“Two years ago, we caught a lot of flack from the city council and some people in the city of Grand Island for how we don’t support the community and we don’t do things around here, which we disagreed with,” Hornady said.

So in response, the company’s president decided to give part of the employees’ annual bonuses in the form of $1 coins, along with a special request that the bonuses be spent in the local community.

This year, the company switched to $2 bills because thousands of dollars’ worth of coins proved hard to deal with.

“We gave out $48,000 worth of $2 bills and asked our employees to spend that money in town, and if people look at you funny, tell them where you work, and we think that they will notice,” company president Steve Hornady said.

However, not all of their bonuses are in $2 bills.

“They also receive a nice check and a deposit into their 401(k)s,” he said. “But we ask them with the $2 bills to go spend it around town and make sure people know that we as a family, meaning the whole employer/employee base, support Grand Island and we spend money here.”

The company has to order the bills from their bank about a month in advance every year.