[imron]

No, because unlike a bonus, tips make up a significant portion of waitstaff's regular income. If they don't get their tips then maybe they don't make rent.

It's a completely different situation than bonuses on top of a salary that already covers living expenses.

[soneca]

At some finance companies yearly bonuses are up to 20 monthly salaries.

[Retric]

That's just for tax avoidance, those 'bonuses' are mostly part of their contract.

[vostok]

> That's just for tax avoidance, those 'bonuses'

Can you teach me how this tax avoidance works? It seems that I am missing out. Can you also specify the jurisdiction where this works?

> mostly part of their contract

I can think of many people whose bonuses are 3x or more their salary and who do not have a guaranteed minimum bonus or even a strict formula based bonus.

[Retric]

http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/income-and-investments/bonus...

1. The Percentage Method

The IRS specifies a flat “supplemental rate” of 25%, meaning that any supplemental wages (including bonuses) should be taxed in that amount.

This works for bonuses up to 1 million.

> I can think of many people

Yes, there are plenty of idiots even in finance.

[ahh]

This only affects the withholding of bonuses (the amount the IRS has you pre-pay as an estimate of taxes.) It does not affect the actual income tax on bonuses.

(It's mostly a disadvantage. I get about 60-70% of my income in bonus and stock which is treated the same; it just means that, if I don't plan ahead for it, I end up with a surprise tax bill on April 15th. I do plan ahead, but the whole process is obnoxious.)

[Retric]

I find large interest free loans useful.

[vostok]

> No, because unlike a bonus, tips make up a significant portion of waitstaff's regular income.

Bonus makes up a significant portion of my regular income. I'm sure that's true for many other HN readers.

> It's a completely different situation than bonuses on top of a salary that already covers living expense.

In many cases, salary does not cover living expenses. In some instances bonuses can be 10x annual salary or more. Even if bonus is only 3x annual salary, you wouldn't say that salary covers living expenses as few people live on only 25% of their income.

[niij]

What employers are paying 3x and 10x salary in BONUSES? That's ludicrous.

Also, if you're still working there and looking for fresh CS grad (Scala and Linux admin experience), my email is in my profile ;)

[Spooky23]

Financial services.

New York State's budget situation is good or bad based on how good or bad bonuses are -- we're talking billions of dollars.

[vostok]

I'm including things like annual equity vesting in bonus. This is not uncommon for senior individual contributor positions in high paying tech and finance companies. It's also not uncommon for sales and senior management roles in all industries.

[nommm-nommm]

Is the bonus agreed upon before starting work or do you just work for pennies with the hope your employer is feeling generous at the end of the year?

[vostok]

It depends on what you were able to negotiate. You might have a guaranteed bonus in your first year, but you might rely on your employer's generosity in future years. In some cases, the bonuses may be based on certain targets, but those targets can become impossible to meet if your employer changes certain aspects of your situation.

Even in the very unlikely event that you have an airtight contract, there are instances where the employer simply will not pay you. Legal action might be the only recourse in this situation. Sometimes you are required to go through arbitration and sometimes you have to sue.