Audio clip
Kris Shuff
Unum Group paid more than $13.7 million in bonuses to its Chattanooga work force Friday as part of $44.5 million it doled out companywide.
Unum officials said that with better financial results in 2007 the total is up nearly $8 million from the previous year.
Thomas R. Watjen, Unum’s chief executive, said the insurer closed 2007 with probably the strongest financial foundation the company has ever had.
“We had record performance from the United Kingdom. We saw record results at Colonial Life and Accident. And we saw very, very strong improvements in results from Unum US,” he said in a statement.
Chattanooga’s biggest public company finished 2007 with its best annual results in years. For the year, Unum reported after-tax operating income of $786.2 million, or $2.21 per share, a 30 percent increase over 2006.
Unum spokeswoman Mary Clarke Guenther said bonuses averaged about $2,000 per person. She said bonuses are based on individual, department and company performance.
The bonus total excludes executives from the senior vice president level and above, Mrs. Guenther said. Word about their bonuses will be included in the company’s proxy statement which is expected to be issued in April, she said.
Kris Shuff, a Unum client manager in Chattanooga, said plans are to use a portion of her bonus on a family vacation, possibly to Gatlinburg, Tenn.
“We’ll save a little, spend a little,” she said, adding that some of the bonus may go into a college fund.
Mrs. Shuff said her bonus, the amount of which she would not reveal, is more than last year’s.
BY THE NUMBERS
* $44.5 million — Total bonus pay out
* 2,765 — Chattanooga workers eligible for bonus
* 8,629 — Companywide employees eligible
Source: Unum Group
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
