San Antonio-based Whataburger awards employees over $90 million in bonuses

Over the last year, fast-food employees have dealt with a deadly pandemic, customer resistance to mask mandates and long lines during February’s winter storm.

To show appreciation, San Antonio-based Whataburger is awarding more than $90 million in bonuses to its 46,000 employees — an average of nearly $2,000 each.

Employees “helped set record company performance numbers” since last March, Whataburger said in announcing the bonuses.

The company said it also gave workers “extra mile” bonuses and emergency pay and doubled their 401(k) match for 2020 “in thanks for their extraordinary service.”

“The past year reshaped how we live, work and play, with the restaurant and hospitality industry being heavily impacted by the pandemic and this year’s crippling winter storms,” Whataburger CEO Ed Nelson said in a statement. “We wanted to help ensure that our family members and their families were taken care of and thank them for continuing to go the extra mile to serve our guests with great pride, care and love.”

On ExpressNews.com: Just over a year since BDT deal, Whataburger prepares new look, pushes into new turf

The pandemic put food service and retail workers on the front lines, and Whataburger is not alone in sweetening the pot for its employees after a year of hardship.

H-E-B gave employees a temporary $2 per hour pay bump early in the pandemic. The San Antonio-based company ended the program in June but said it would make “permanent investments” in its workforce, including “accelerated and enhanced pay increases.”

For the typical H-E-B employee, the raise will be more than double the temporary bump, a spokesperson said.

Walmart last year awarded more than $2.8 billion in quarterly and special cash bonuses.

McDonald’s gave employees of corporate-owned restaurants bonsues equal to 10 percent of their wages for May.

Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and other chains, announced last month it would give $17 million in bonuses to nearly 90,000 hourly restaurant workers and ensure that they are paid at least $10 an hour.

Plenty of chains survived and, in some instances, saw sales surge during the pandemic, in part because of drive-thru, take-out and delivery sales, said David Henkes, a senior principal at food service consultancy Technomic.

The firm ranked Whataburger the 26th-largest U.S. restaurant chain by sales, which rose 5.6 percent to $2.7 billion last year.

“It makes sense to reward your employees who put up with a lot during the pandemic,” Henkes said.

Restaurant operators are struggling to find, hire and keep employees, which was a challenge before the pandemic.

“The more you can increase pay, make employees feel valued ... the easier it will be to retain workers,” Henkes said.

Whataburger also is changing general managers’ titles to “operating partners” and said they can earn six figures annually, including bonuses of up to 150 percent of their target incentives.

Whataburger began as a roadside burger stand that Harmon Dobson opened in 1950 in Corpus Christi. Today it has more than 840 restaurants in 10 states. Most of its locations are in Texas.

The Dobson family announced in 2019 that Chicago-based BDT Capital Partners had acquired a majority stake in the company and planned to expand it. Whataburger is opening restaurants in new markets, including cities in Missouri and Tennessee. It also is granting franchises for the first time in nearly two decades and is introducing new restaurant models.