Taylor Swift is smashing records and making millions off of her Eras tour โ and now she’s paying it forward to the ones who make it possible to hit every stop along the way.
TMZ revealed that Swift gifted all production truck drivers on the road a cool $100,000 bonus each last week as she finishes the U.S. leg of her tour, which will conclude on August 9th with an impressive six sold-out shows in Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium before she heads to Mexico on the 24th.
Swift has 50 truck drivers working on her tour through Shomotion Trucking company, which means the bonuses she doled out for the drivers alone totaled $5 million.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Levi’s Stadium on July 28, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. (Getty Images)
“Her father was the one that actually presented the checks to our drivers,” Shomotion Trucking CEO Mike Scherkenbach told TODAY. “And he presented handwritten letters from Taylor. It’s incredible that they would take that time, and what it means to our staff to be recognized.”
According to Indeed, the average salary for a truck driver in the U.S. is around $84,000.
Swift also reportedly gave bonuses to her backup dancers, catering team, stage and production crew, and her band, with People estimating that the total bonuses add up to roughly $55 million.
The superstar’s donations are more than generous, but after looking at her tour earnings, it might just be a blip on her radar.
It’s been estimated that Swift will earn over $1 billion by the end of the international leg of the Eras Tour, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time, and out-earning Elton John’s historic Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which grossed roughly $853 million.
Swift’s estimated net worth pre-tour is $740 million.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/taylor-swift-gave-tour-staff-100000-bonuses-totaling/456874