These days, employees nationwide often gather around water-coolers and coffee-makers to vent about high fuel prices. When one Midwest publishing executive heard an employee singing the gas-pump blues, he decided to do something about it.
"I heard one of my employees talking about how the high cost of gas was limiting his activities out of the office," said Benjamin W. Mangan, president of MANCOMM, a national safety and compliance publisher with 21 employees. "I thought it would help all of my employees if they received regular Fuel Bonuses for the duration of the current high gas prices."
Mangan said that his employees appreciate the extra money, and he encourages other employers to give their employees Fuel Bonuses as a job perk. To make computing Fuel Bonuses easier for the business community, MANCOMM has created the website, www.MyFuelBonus.com.
Calculating the Bonus
On the online calculator at MyFuelBonus.com, you first select the starting date of the pay period in question. Next, you enter your state income tax and select your payroll frequency. Then, you hit 'Calculate Bonus' to see the amount of the Fuel Bonus for that pay period.
To compute a fair Fuel Bonus for his MANCOMM employees, Mangan came up with the following steps. These are also the steps used to computer Fuel Bonuses on MyFuelBonus.com.
• Mangan researched the number of miles driven by the average American each year: 13,476, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
• He figured in the fact that the average new vehicle in America gets 24.7 miles per gallon, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
• Based on those figures, the average American buys 545.587 gallons of gas (13,476 divided by 24.7) each year.
• He subtracted the current price of gas from the price of gas during the same week two years earlier. For example, the average price of gas on June 6, 2011 was $3.83 per gallon, while the average price of gas two years earlier was $2.67 per gallon.
• With those numbers in mind, an employee is probably paying $1.16 per gallon extra ($3.83 minus $2.67) and will buy 545.587 gallons in 2011, which will cost an extra $632.88 ($1.16 multiplied by 545.587) due to inflated prices.
• An employer offering biweekly paychecks should pay $24.34 net extra as a Fuel Bonus ($632.88 divided by 26 pay periods in a year) during each pay period.
• The fuel bonus check is taxable (25% for Federal, 7.65% for FICA and 5% for some state income taxes) so to net $24.34, a gross payment of $38.98 is necessary ($24.34 divided by (1 - 0.3756), or .6244).
"I welcome other companies and their employees to consult MyFuelBonus.com," Mangan said. "The online calculator there makes it easy to determine a fair Fuel Bonus for the current week."
For more information on MANCOMM, visit www.Mancomm.com.
