Year End Bonus

[RockyMtn]

My first bonus was a ham. I was 18 years old. Think my first bonus at a full time job was when I was 24 or so. I was thrilled even though it wasn't that much dough. Over the years the bonuses got bigger in terms of total $$'s and %'s.

At the end my bonus was roughly 50% of base salary which was pretty standard for the industry. Managers/directors used to get 15-20%, VP's 20-25%, SVP's 25-30%, EVP's 30-35%. While not guaranteed it was widely considered part of total comp and there was never a single year when they weren't doled out.

I used to bank 100% more or less which is one big reason that I stopped w*rking at 51.

 

[NanoSour]

At F100 megacorp the bonus was 15-25% based on complex formula given individual and company performance objectives. Giving out bonus checks to my employees was one of the best parts of being a manager.

 

[MaddMaxx]

am in the oil and gas industry, the most I have made was a 40% bonus, however employees now average between 10-20% annual bonuses.

 

[Dash man]

I never got a bonus, but had a program manager once share his bonus by buying cookies and punch for us to thank us for a great year. His new BMW was sitting outside in the parking lot.


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[MaddMaxx]

I never got a bonus, but had a program manager once share his bonus by buying cookies and punch for us to thank us for a great year. His new BMW was sitting outside in the parking lot.


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My first job out of High School, our bonuses consisted of cash inserted into balloons taped to a wall and each employee received three darts. It might of paid for lunch unless you were lucky enough to get one of the two $20 bills.

Because of all of the low paid employees were required to wear suits, often the salesmen would donate their older suits to the service employees.

Those were the times, I think I make more annually now then the first ten years of employment combined.

 

[NgineER]

My two mega corps had about the same bonus structure.

Scientists, PhD etc start with a target of 5% of annual compensation being the bonus

Each promotion, your salary would increase by 10% and your bonus component by 5% points.

So first promotion your bonus goes up to 10%, then 15%, 20% etc

Management stepped up the scale quicker.

The bonus portion was dependent on personal, division and corporate performance.

You could get 0-2x of your target based mostly on corporate performance.

My bonus this year is estimated to be about 10%.

 

[Cobra9777]

I worked at Hi-Tech Megacorp for 25 years. Got my first bonus around year 7 or 8. It was 25% of base salary at the time. Stock option grants started a year or two after that. I got options every year in relatively stable amounts. The bonus however was highly variable depending on my individual performance, results of my business unit, and overall corporate performance. I remember two years when the bonus was zero... one was in the aftermath of the dot-com disaster; the other was 2009. Most years it was between 20% and 40% of base salary. The year I retired, it was 33%.

My base salary was not bad, usually in-line with salary.com or similar tools. So I never felt like the bonus was to compensate for low base. While the options were primarily a retention tool, the bonus was a mechanism to "connect" a large part of my total compensation to performance and achievement of specific priorities. Once you reached a certain level in the company (I was a director-level manager), it was generally understood that compensation would be highly variable and dependent upon results. I'm glad I worked at a company with that philosophy. I worked extremely hard, was compensated accordingly, and got out before any permanent brain damage.

 

[RetireAge50]

Was lucky and averaged about 15%

 

[nuke_diver]

Here we get quarterly bonuses. They are your salary X job grade factor X performance factor X company performance factor

Last year though the company did well the company performance factor managed to be 0 all the time And in spite of laying off 66% of the company in 2009 and another 5% in 2010 and 2011 we still seem to have a bell curve of performance according to management. I argued against this system but since last year was 0 bonus it kind of didn't matter much.

Best bonus I've had at another company was yearly 26% based on company performance...they also changed the rules the next year so paying out the max would be harder

 

[Silver]

I worked in the healthcare industry for 35 years. Only bonus ever was to retire and stop working in the healthcare industry.

 

[HFWR]

Best bonus I've had at another company was yearly 26% based on company performance...they also changed the rules the next year so paying out the max would be harder

Quite a few years ago Megaconglomocorp re-jiggered the profit sharing formula, and the cheerleading began as corporate touted how great it was going to be.

After the first check that next year, they re-re-jiggered the formula. Guess they didn't want to be that generous...

 

[MRG]

Way back machine. When I first moved to this area I worked in a sawmill. They paid a 5% bonus of your pay for every full 40 hour week you put in, helped encourage attendance. It was paid the week before Christmas.

These were hard physical, dangerous jobs. Most of the 70 men that worked there lived paycheck to paycheck so this was their Christmas money. That Christmas week the owner came out an announced "bad year guys, not in the union's contract so we're not paying". I watched grow men cry, would be no presents for their family. He committed it wouldn't happen next year. He kept his word too, next year he paid the 5%, then announced he was shutting the place down for 2 weeks. Same reaction, grown men crying, there was a two week wait for unemployment so they got hosed again.

That and other crap, woke me up to get out of that industry. The plan for night school was soon hatched.


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[FUEGO]

My first job out of High School, our bonuses consisted of cash inserted into balloons taped to a wall and each employee received three darts. It might of paid for lunch unless you were lucky enough to get one of the two $20 bills.

I might have to start giving out Christmas cash gifts in this format to my family members. "Who's gonna get lucky and find the $20?"

 

[Dash man]

I might have to start giving out Christmas cash gifts in this format to my family members. "Who's gonna get lucky and find the $20?"

I'd be leery doing this with some of our family...somebody would get hurt and then I'd be sued!


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[Walt34]

Bonus? They give out bonuses? Never saw one in real life.

 

[Ronstar]

I vaguely remember getting yearly bonuses during the 80's. Can't remember how much they were - maybe 1%. When I became a part owner in the business, the owners didn't get bonuses. But we did take periodic distributions depending on profitability. The non owner employees generally received a yearly bonus depending on one's productivity / profitability. Employee bonuses ranged 1-5%.


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[CRLLS]

I have worked at various places. Places with no bonus, with a turkey bonus, with profit sharing etc. The amount of bonus was certainly based on who you knew and how well the company did that year, more than how well you performed. The worse "bonus" I got was after working on a "special project" for 9 months of 6 days work and 55 hrs+ per week. I got a whopping $300. And out of that they took taxes! The best I ever got was about 40% of my base counting cash and stock options. Those were the days.

 

[Dash man]

I have worked at various places. Places with no bonus, with a turkey bonus, with profit sharing etc. The amount of bonus was certainly based on who you knew and how well the company did that year, more than how well you performed. The worse "bonus" I got was after working on a "special project" for 9 months of 6 days work and 55 hrs+ per week. I got a whopping $300. And out of that they took taxes! The best I ever got was about 40% of my base counting cash and stock options. Those were the days.

Did they make you pay income tax on the turkey?


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[jon-nyc]

They withheld the neck and the gizzard for Uncle Sam, no doubt.

 

[MooreBonds]

I might have to start giving out Christmas cash gifts in this format to my family members. "Who's gonna get lucky and find the $20?"

You have to keep quiet on what values are hidden in the balloons! And put up extra ones, so that way some are left over...and you can imply that the ones they didn't get had the "really really big jackpots", so that way they feel like they were......THIS CLOSE......to getting a huge payout.

 

[Spanky]

mean = 12.8%
SD = 7.4
range = 4 - 33%

 

[GreenER]

I worked in the healthcare industry for 35 years. Only bonus ever was to retire and stop working in the healthcare industry.

Same here! We did on occasion get a 1% bonus but only in lieu of a yearly cola or other contractual increase. This only occurred on down economic cycles when the environment for union negotiations was poor. Would much rather have had the pay increase as it drove the rest of my benefits. We used to get a turkey at Thanksgiving as well and sundry "appreciation" gifts like hats, cups, pedometers, key fobs, water bottles etc. All with company logo.

 

[jollystomper]

I choose to get my bonus spread out over the year. Last year it was 7%, which was much lower than the 15-20% range of the prior years. However, our budget does not include the bonus, so it doesn't impact how we live and anything we receive is a nice surprise.

My record bonus was over 50%, in terms of both cash and the value of stock options exercised that year. Naturally this was the year before our oldest went off to college, which did "wonders" for our FAFSA application .

 

[bUU]

0%.

Wait - no - 0% and a thank you for exceeding expectations.

 

[Meadbh]

I got a $200 Christmas bonus in 1986 because my department had made over $1m profit that year. I was totally shocked to get the bonus, but I shouldn't have worried, because it never happened again.

Of course I did get a travel mug in 2000 or so after 10 years with the same organization, and then there was the tabletop grill in 2005 after 15 years' service. I'm still using the grill, so I guess that's a bonus!