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How big was Clark’s bonus?
Posted on 12/19/25 at 11:31 pm
Posted on 12/19/25 at 11:31 pm
Always comes up…. Clark Griswold gets his bonus and he is putting in a pool and flying the family out to celebrate it.
His boss tells him to add 20% to what he got last year, to which Clark passes out from amazement.
So…. I would assume in the early 90s to put in a pool and fly the family out…. Had to be roughly 50k
Add 20%
So Clark was looking at a 60k bonus?
Most Christmas bonuses are like 5% of your salary….so Clark was making 1 mill a year?
His boss tells him to add 20% to what he got last year, to which Clark passes out from amazement.
So…. I would assume in the early 90s to put in a pool and fly the family out…. Had to be roughly 50k
Add 20%
So Clark was looking at a 60k bonus?
Most Christmas bonuses are like 5% of your salary….so Clark was making 1 mill a year?
18
Posted on 12/19/25 at 11:35 pm to AZTiger7072
50k would have been an extremely high end pool in 1989. Which is when the movie released. It would be more realistic to value it at around 25k. It could have been as low as 10k.
This post was edited on 12/20/25 at 12:18 am
Posted on 12/20/25 at 12:17 am to AZTiger7072
The pool in his dream wasn't remotely that expensive.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 12:41 am to AZTiger7072
Not even close.
An $80K salary and $20K annual bonus would have the Griswolds living a very comfortable lifestyle in 1989 suburban Chicago.
An $80K salary and $20K annual bonus would have the Griswolds living a very comfortable lifestyle in 1989 suburban Chicago.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 3:53 am to Dr Rosenrosen
A 20k bonus on an 80k salary is crazy? Your holiday bonus is 25% of your salary?
Posted on 12/20/25 at 6:54 am to AZTiger7072
You develop a semi-permeable, not osmotic, non-nutritive cereal varnish, otherwise known as the crunch enhancer. You should expect a large bonus.
This post was edited on 12/20/25 at 6:56 am
Posted on 12/20/25 at 7:12 am to AZTiger7072
He’s a Chem E with a window office. So I assume he is some kind of department head.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 7:24 am to Chardee MacDennis
quote:
You develop a semi-permeable, not osmotic, non-nutritive cereal varnish
Hey none of that inside bullshite jargon nobody understands.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 7:42 am to AZTiger7072
A standard Christmas bonus is one week’s pay. Let’s say he made 78k a year. Which is a lot of money in the 80s.
That’s 1500 a week.
He mentions he needed that to cover the down payment on the pool.
Pool was likely @7k installed with concrete finishes.
My cousins got a basic AF pool installed in the 80s that was a little less than 3 grand.
That’s 1500 a week.
He mentions he needed that to cover the down payment on the pool.
Pool was likely @7k installed with concrete finishes.
My cousins got a basic AF pool installed in the 80s that was a little less than 3 grand.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 7:51 am to AZTiger7072
According to grok, installing an in-ground pool in the Chicago area suburbs in the 80s would have cost $10-25k. Clark said he wrote a check to cover the deposit for the pool, which I assume would have been 10-20% of the cost. So let's assume the high end on both and he wrote a check for $5k to cover the deposit. A chemist at a food company at that time was making in the $25-50K range. As someone pointed out, Clark has an office and is likely a senior manager, not a guy working in a lab, so his comp is probably in the $50-75K range. He was probably expecting a bonus of 10%, so $5-7.5k, which would have covered the deposit.
ETA: in the movie he says he wrote a check for $7500 for the deposit. I think that is consistent with what I wrote, maybe just bump everything up a bit.
ETA: in the movie he says he wrote a check for $7500 for the deposit. I think that is consistent with what I wrote, maybe just bump everything up a bit.
This post was edited on 12/20/25 at 7:54 am
Posted on 12/20/25 at 8:02 am to coolpapaboze
I think there could be just general Hollywood misunderstanding on how real jobs work
They could be assuming a Christmas bonus is more akin to a yearly bonus. With that in mind Clark could have been looking at his yearly performance and was above budget thus assumed he’d be getting a fat bonus
Everywhere i worked has given flat Christmas bonuses across the board. Like 1k for all employees or as cheap as $100 gift cards to Kroger (not even Heb), the latter was insulting. Any real bonus I’ve gotten comes in the spring
But I’ve been stuck in the family business career path and not corporate world
They could be assuming a Christmas bonus is more akin to a yearly bonus. With that in mind Clark could have been looking at his yearly performance and was above budget thus assumed he’d be getting a fat bonus
Everywhere i worked has given flat Christmas bonuses across the board. Like 1k for all employees or as cheap as $100 gift cards to Kroger (not even Heb), the latter was insulting. Any real bonus I’ve gotten comes in the spring
But I’ve been stuck in the family business career path and not corporate world
Posted on 12/20/25 at 8:20 am to Dire Wolf
It all depends. Some areas are bonus heavy. My salary is pretty standard but I have a 50% bonus as most people in my area.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 9:04 am to AZTiger7072
Topics like this is why I love this board. True story.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 10:10 am to AZTiger7072
Nowhere near enough to cover all of the repairs to his house, let alone the pool
Posted on 12/20/25 at 10:18 am to AZTiger7072
The bonus wasn’t meant to cover the entire pool, just the down payment.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 10:31 am to AZTiger7072
Something to keep in mind...he worked at a food company. ADM and those folks pay absolutely retarded salaries. Case in point: Bill Laimbeer's dad laughed at his first contract with the Pistons and told him he makes twice that a year (think he was a president though).
We clown his station wagon but that was the Yukon XL of its day. Also, a pool for 3 months use is some real baller shite in the Chicago Burbs. Dude was clocking way north of 100k if you ask me. And, as others have noted online, I bet a lot of the road trips and family time he is so insistent on stem from guilt about spending so much time away from his family in the service of his career.
My guess? 150k Salary, 40% bonus the year before, so 60k bonus, add 20% on top of that and Clarkie was pulling in a 72k bonus that year. he also no doubt had a pension and at his level stock options. By the time this fool retired I bet he had north of $10 million coming his way just from all of that.
And hey, if you doubt any of this, look at his wife. Beverly ain't messing with no scrubs, i promise ya.
We clown his station wagon but that was the Yukon XL of its day. Also, a pool for 3 months use is some real baller shite in the Chicago Burbs. Dude was clocking way north of 100k if you ask me. And, as others have noted online, I bet a lot of the road trips and family time he is so insistent on stem from guilt about spending so much time away from his family in the service of his career.
My guess? 150k Salary, 40% bonus the year before, so 60k bonus, add 20% on top of that and Clarkie was pulling in a 72k bonus that year. he also no doubt had a pension and at his level stock options. By the time this fool retired I bet he had north of $10 million coming his way just from all of that.
And hey, if you doubt any of this, look at his wife. Beverly ain't messing with no scrubs, i promise ya.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 11:28 am to AZTiger7072
Like others have said he’s probably making $80ish a year. I’d guess bonus is probably around $2-$3,000. That would have been a nice down payment on a pool in ‘89.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 11:44 am to Demonbengal
quote:
Like others have said he’s probably making $80ish a year. I’d guess bonus is probably around $2-$3,000. That would have been a nice down payment on a pool in ‘89.
He clearly says he put a $7500 deposit down.
He later says he needs the bonus to cover it, so the bonus is at least that much. 20% on top of $7500 brings it to $10000.
Posted on 12/20/25 at 12:33 pm to AZTiger7072
$350.00
Posted on 12/20/25 at 1:49 pm to AZTiger7072
(no message)
This post was edited on 12/23/25 at 12:15 am
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