GM Earns Nearly $10B, Cuts Big Checks for the Hourly

Flying in the face of empty dealership lots and a headache-inducing supply chain, General Motors reported this morning that the company recorded just under $10 billion in net income during the 2022 calendar year. This is good news for anyone wearing a GM hat, including hourly workers who will find enormous bonus checks in their mailboxes later this year.

How enormous? Try up to $12,750 – a figure determined by UAW negotiations back in 2019. Over 42,000 hourly workers will receive this sum, or one like it, on their February 24th paychecks according to a report from the Detroit News. Apparently, this amount is roughly 20 percent higher than profit-sharing amounts in 2021, though the formula for arriving at the number is so complex it causes this author’s head to spin, even more than it does after his morning ration of Angel’s Envy bourbon.

As for the company itself, last year’s revenue was just shy of $157 billion, up nearly $30 billion from that same time frame twelve months prior. Roughly $43 billion was made in the fourth quarter alone, representing about 27 percent of totals and suggesting sales were picking up as the calendar flipped out of 2022.

Anyone doing the math will have figured out this represents a net income margin of 6.3 percent, a number some distance from last year’s 7.9 percent. This was largely blamed on two factors: Hauling out of Russia apparently represented a $657 million hit, while buying out Buick dealers who were not onboard with that brand’s EV future dinged the company for a further $511 million. 

GM hasn’t disclosed just how many Buick dealers chose to give up their franchise instead of plowing a quarter-mil into upgrading their facilities for electric vehicles. Estimates place the number of stores in America at about 2,000 outlets. However, the company made a similar offer to their 880 Cadillac dealers a couple of years ago, and about 320 took the money and ran. Unofficially, buyout offers for Cadillac dealers ranged from roughly $300K to over a million bucks. Estimating each Buick buyout at $500,000 suggests General Motors may have shed over half its dealerships for that brand.

[Image: The author]

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