GM set to pay hourly workers at least $4,000 bonus

General Motors Co (GM.N) will pay its 45,000 hourly workers in the United States a bonus of at least $4,000 each, the automaker said on Monday.

The average employee payout will be finalized by the end of February. The payments will be doled out on March 25, a company spokeswoman said.

This is the largest profit-sharing bonus GM has ever given hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers union. It gave a $1,775 payment to each hourly worker in 1999.

Additionally, GM will give at least $3,000 to each employee at its subsidiary, GM Component Holdings. This subsidiary owns four component plants that GM bought from Delphi after the auto supplier emerged from bankruptcy.

The plants are in New York, Michigan and Indiana. There are 3,000 eligible employees at this plants.

GM's announcements comes after both Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Chrysler Group LLC announced bonuses to their workers. All three automakers will enter into contract talks with the UAW later this year.

Last month, Ford said it would pay profit-sharing bonuses averaging $5,000 to about 40,600 factory workers represented by the UAW. Chrysler, which is managed by Italy's Fiat SpA (FIA.MI), will pay an average of $750 to its hourly workers in the United States and Canada based on the company's 2010 performance.

Last week, GM announced its bonus plan for salaried workers. The vast majority of its salaried workers are slated to receive bonuses of 4 to 16 percent of their base pay.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman and Bernie Woodall; Editing by Richard Chang, Gary Hill)