Some 150,000 people in Britain will be celebrating today after UK supermarket giant Tesco announced that it was awarding all its staff bonuses averaging £4,000 (more than $7,000) each after making record profits last year.
The £220m bonus pot, thought to be the largest-ever handout by a British company, will pay staff 20 per cent of salary in cash, or up to 30 per cent if employees opt to take it in shares.
Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy will make £2 million, taking his total package to £3 million this year.
A Tesco spokesman said: "It's been a great performance by the whole team and, as these figures show, everybody shares in that success."