No bonus, don't care for them or the way they are political. Defined profit sharing outlined in a signed contract rather than bonuses is nice to have though, as long as it's legally solid and can not be gamed by management. Nothing worse than busting balls all year and then told in December that your profit-sharing is being withheld because you were honest with the CEO in a meeting about something technical.

Even when you have it in writing though things can go bad. For example, consider the recent and instantly legendary situation in 2011's business news about Zynga's discovering they would revoke some of their employee's previously granted stock option grants because their CEO was smoking crack (metaphorically) one evening and concluded that a key member of the Google team who worked there years ago (and importantly, who has nothing to do with Zynga at all) was over paid. This case demonstrates well just how badly incentive systems can go wrong. That situation was so distasteful that everyone in industry with talent knows to stay away from Zynga now, and as a result, even their IPO value went splat. Incentive systems can kill a company when they are controlled by psychopaths.

While the stock situation leaves a bad taste in the mouth, I think it's a huge stretch to say it affected the IPO at all. It only concerned a small number of early executives, and those kinds of uncomfortable situations occur in almost every large company. The only difference is that Zynga's were aired publicly during a time when they were under intense scrutiny.

Isn't percentage more interesting that raw amount? It would be to me anyway.

Missing option: continued employment.

In a large company still hurting from the GFC (or so they tell us). Regardless we don't get one.

I had to fight very hard to get one at all for my mid year (financial year) performance review. Apparently that was at the expense of my peers due to there being a collective pot. I voted based on that.

Back when I worked for a larger company I got a bonus of $3k-4k at the end of the year. It was nice, but was held over our heads from October - December to make sure we were working harder than physically possible.

In Startupland, bonuses just don't really fit in. I don't mind it too much.

I'm happier now (in non-profit land) with no bonus, and 40 hours weeks, than I was in finance with [base salary] X [modifier] bonus and 60-80 hour weeks. In the end the bonus amortized across the extra hours actually _devalued_ my base hourly rate.

I'd really like to know what career gets the bonus that's larger than my salary.

Finance (hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity) jobs can have bonuses that are several multiples of the base pay, especially at the higher levels.

The only job where I've ever gotten more than a token bonus was when I worked at an investment bank. For us in IT and other "support" departments it was in the range of 10 - 20% of base; the actual financial guys got much more.

Manager's compensation is mostly bonus-based the higher you go, in the guise of "hitting your yearly targets." Senior Mgr is about 10% to 25% of base salary. Director is about 15% to 40%. VP is certainly 30% to 80%. CEO might solely depend on bonus to get the big windfall, like stock price hitting certain level.

I'm a high level developer working in the finance industry, I get a six figure bonus that about equals my salary.

CEO of any large company would well over the top bracket here.

When I worked at a consulting firm, I received a 20% bonus. It is great for retention. You are reluctant to leave in the 6 months leading up to your bonus. It's better for the employee to just get a bigger salary.

I'm a student, so it's more like -$20k/year in "bonuses".

No bonus here, I pay myself dividends instead.