A recent poll shows that most companies still plan to give out bonuses, but, at the same time, fewer workers will get salary increases.

CNN Business, citing a 700-person Towers Watson survey, found that 35 percent of companies have reduced their projections for pay raises next year due to weaker financial results and budget cuts. While half of the companies surveyed plan to hold steady on raises, they will still be smaller, an estimated 2.6 percent average, compared to previous estimates of 2.8 percent just a few months ago, though even that was smaller than the pre-pandemic annual average of 3 percent.

Ten percent are dispensing with raises altogether.

At the same time, 66 percent said they still plan to give out bonuses, which benefit primarily executives and managers, although 8 percent are planning to stop them and 26 percent are still undecided.

In other news, Bloomberg is reporting that the 50 richest Americans now hold more wealth than the bottom 165 million combined, though "bottom" is relative here because that represents nearly half the entire U.S. population. The net worth of these 50 billionaires went up from $339 billion at the start of the year to $2 trillion now, or a little less than the Democrats' latest stimulus bill. Data also shows that the wealthiest 1 percent of the country own more than 50 percent of the equity in corporations and mutual fund shares, and the next 9 percent own more than a third of equity positions, meaning that the top 10 percent own more than 88 percent of shares.