CEO gives employees 'life-changing' bonus

Elizabeth Armstrong Moore | Newser staff

(NEWSER) – The founder of one of Turkey's most successful brands, the food delivery company Yemeksepeti, in May sold his 15-year-old company to Germany's Delivery Hero for $589 million. He's quite literally sharing the wealth: $27 million is going to 114 of the company's 370 employees. "Yemeksepeti's success story did not happen overnight and many people participated in this journey with their hard work and talent," CEO Nevzat Aydin tellsCNNMoney, specifying that the amount each person received was based on how long they'd been with the company, how well they'd performed, and their "future potential in the company." Yemeksepeti, which means "food cart" in Turkish, is the country's first, not to mention biggest, online delivery site, reports Business Insider. Its reach has spread to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and Jordan, and it delivers more than 3 million meals every month.

With the typical employee earning between $1,000 and $2,000 a month, the average $237,000 bonus works out to roughly 150 months of wages, per CNNMoney. "This bonus package is life-changing to many of us," one employee says. Aydin tells Hurriyet that while the company had no "liabilities or promises," they decided to give the employees "out of our own share and by also paying the taxes."NineMSN reports that there were "many crying" at the news. As for why all 370 workers didn't get something, CNNMoney notes that those who had been with Yemeksepeti for fewer than two years were excluded. Adds Aydin, who will remain CEO, "I wish we could have given them more." (Check out another classy move in the world of bonuses.)

This article originally appeared on Newser:

More from Newser: