TVA year-end bonuses average $10,970 per employee

The Tennessee Valley Authority next week will distribute year-end performance bonuses averaging $10,970 for each of more than 10,000 employees, reports the Times Free Press.

“We are getting really good results for the people we serve, and this performance pay is in recognition of that effort by our employees,” TVA President Bill Johnson said Wednesday.

Just ahead of next week’s Black Friday sales, TVA employees will share in $112.5 million of winning performance payments being paid to workers after the TVA board determined the agency had exceeded its 2017 corporate targets by reducing debt, injuries and emissions while still exceeding targets for job generation, power reliability and environmental improvements.

Although fewer in number, TVA employees next week will get, on average, about 15 percent more in year-end performance payments than the $9,532 average payment made last year. The winning performance pay for 2017 was still below the peak average of $11,400 paid in fiscal 2014, however, when TVA paid a record $131 million in year-end bonuses.

The amount of the winning performance pay varies widely, but most workers will get extra payments next week equal to at least 5 percent of their annual pay.

TVA executives, such as Johnson, who have the biggest share of their income at risk, got the biggest incentive payments from TVA in fiscal 2017.

Johnson’s total direct pay and compensation in the past fiscal year totaled more than $5 million, or five times his base annual salary of $995,000.

The 63-year-old attorney and utility manager, who previously served as CEO of Progress Energy, joined TVA in 2013 and quickly became the highest paid federal employee in America.