Why Some People Are Allergic to ‘Peanut Butter Raises’

Both peanut butter and salary increases are widely loved, but put them together and you may get some grumbles.

“Peanut butter raises” are across-the-board pay bumps to employees, spread out thinly like a creamy condiment on bread. The term popped up all over business media this year after a report from Payscale, a compensation data company, suggested that some employers would be giving such raises instead of larger merit-based increases to a select few.

This metaphorical use of peanut butter has been lurking around corporate America for years: In 2006, Brad Garlinghouse, then a senior vice president at Yahoo, wrote an infamous memo criticizing the company’s strategy of “spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world” — in his view, failing to focus on priorities or reward top performers with higher pay. “I hate peanut butter. We all should,” he wrote in what he called the Peanut Butter Manifesto.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/business/peanut-butter-raises.html