Airbus is paying nearly all of its 126,000 employees a $1,470 bonus to help them cope with the cost of living crisis

• Around 120,000 Airbus employees will receive a cash bonus to help cope with rising living costs.
• They'll receive the 1,500 euro ($1,470) payment in their next paycheck, Airbus confirmed to Insider.

Aviation giant Airbus is the latest major corporation to hand workers a one-off payment to help fight the growing cost of living crisis, giving almost all of its 126,000 global staff a bonus of around $1,470.

Around 120,000 employees will receive an "exceptional premium" in their next payroll, a spokesperson for Airbus told Insider. The French News wire Agence France-Presse (AFP) first reported the news, Monday, per Le Figaro.

"The company believes that this solution is the most appropriate to support employees in the short-term as they cope with the current inflationary environment," the spokesperson said.

Employees in Airbus' four base countries — France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom — as well as apprentices globally, will receive the cash payment equivalent to $1,470. Workers in other regions will be paid a bonus calculated according to their local base salary, Airbus said. The bonuses apply for all staff, including senior managers, the memo, seen by AFP, says.

"The volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity that characterizes our environment have been further reinforced in recent months by the energy crisis and inflation," the company said in the internal memo sent Monday, per Le Figaro.

Airbus has 126,000 employees globally, per a presentation from the company, including 46,000 in France, 43,000 in Germany, 12,000 in Spain, and 9,000 in the UK.

Airbus is not the only company offering to protect workers against rising food and energy costs at a time when wages have fallen behind inflation, which has reached nearly 10% across the European Union, per Eurostat. In the USA, the Consumer Prices Index, a key measure of inflation, was tracking at a 40-year high during the month through September.

Rolls-Royce — whose engines are used in several Airbus planes — gave thousands of employees a cash bonus equivalent to $2,500 and a back-dated pay rise in June. Later the same month, Big Four accountancy firm PwC said it had increased its annual bonus pool by $12.3 million amid rising living costs.

In September the stalwart British department store John Lewis announced that its 40,000 partners would receive free breakfast and lunch between October 3 and January 6.