TikTok Parent Doles Out Bonus Pay To Staffers As Deadline For U.S. Ban Approaches

Citing an internal memo, which was confirmed by the company, Bloomberg reports that ByteDance will offer half a month’s salary as a bonus to its 60,000-plus global workforce hoping to calm them as the September 15 sale deadline set by Trump’s first executive order against the company approaches.

According to the memo, the cash bonus will be offered to all “eligible employees” adding that it will pay out the bonus along with September’s salary to any full-timer who has worked at least 26 days between July 1 and August 31, the report added.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on TikTok, which includes a ban on all transactions between the company and any U.S. entity, has raised concerns among the company’s American employees.

Patrick Ryan, a technical program manager at the video-sharing platform, has filed an injunction with a federal court in California seeking a halt on Trump’s August 6 order, noting that the order’s broad language may prevent the company from paying wages and salaries to its U.S. employees.

The injunction motion points out that Trump’s order banning all transactions between TikTok and U.S. entities directs the Commerce Department to “identify the transactions” subject to the order but allows it to wait till the day the order takes effect to announce the rules, keeping the company’s employees in the dark.

The motion contends that Trump’s ban is “an unlawful and unconstitutional abuse of executive power” that violates rights of due process guaranteed to TikTok employees by the Fifth Amendment.