# If you get a bonus, what % of your base pay is it normally? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 8, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307 "2012-05-08T19:04:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/1 "2012-05-08T19:04:37Z")
Bonus or incentive compensation is part of your total compensation along with base salary, benefits, etc. So, if you receive a bonus as a part of your total compensation, what % of your base pay is your bonus normally? Poll to follow. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/2 "2012-05-08T20:46:44Z")
I voted zero, but that’s not the whole truth. For years I got a $100 bonus at the holiday season. In the past few years, I got nothing. This past year I got $500. It was the same for all of my peers. For this last one, seriously new employees got less. It had nothing to do with a percentage. It was flat across the board. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/3 "2012-05-08T21:13:31Z")
Originally I was eligible for a bonus of up to 20% of my annual salary. After a few years of getting the full bonus, I was offered the opportunity to eliminate my bonus and increase my salary by 20%, so I took it. Basically it’s a guaranteed bonus. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/4 "2012-05-08T21:18:54Z")
This year it was 12% of my base pay. Once I reach three years (it’s my one year anniversary this week!) it will double. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/5 "2012-05-08T21:50:08Z")
My contract says it is **up to** 10%. I have never received the full 10%, and not because my personal performance hasn’t merited it. The company’s board decides what the bonus pool will be for the whole multinational company, and we get paid the bonus out of that. They have never made the pool sufficient to pay everyone in the pool anything like their full bonuses. If any doper works for this company, I think they’ll recognise it. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/6 "2012-05-08T21:51:58Z")
My “target” bonus is 10%, modified by a multiplier based on the company’s performance. It could be less than 10% (even zero) but the company has been doing exceptionally well during the economic downturn and since I started here my annual bonuses have been between 17-22%. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/7 "2012-05-08T21:52:44Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > Originally I was eligible for a bonus of up to 20% of my annual salary. After a few years of getting the full bonus, I was offered the opportunity to eliminate my bonus and increase my salary by 20%, so I took it. Basically it’s a guaranteed bonus. Advice to others offered this deal: if you work for math-tarded people, try to split the difference by increasing your salary by 10% and getting a bonus of 10% of that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/8 "2012-05-08T22:10:51Z")
We have nothing in writing re: bonuses, but typically in decent years we get an extra half a month’s salary. Last year was a good year, and we got a month’s salary. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/9 "2012-05-08T23:57:41Z")
I don’t get one yet, which isn’t surprising considering I’ve just passed the six-month mark here today, but I likely will the year after next. I haven’t have the nerve to ask my boss what hers amounts to… ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/10 "2012-05-09T00:47:21Z")
My job offer stated a minimum 30% but I’ve heard it’s actually targeted at 50 with a max of 70. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/11 "2012-05-09T00:59:38Z")
Extremely low. Somewhere between 1 - 2%. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/12 "2012-05-09T11:25:57Z")
Up to 20% split into quarterly chunks. Things that can modify it down are personal performance, team performance, and company performance. I think I’ve only had less than max once or twice in 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/13 "2012-05-09T12:55:02Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Advice to others offered this deal: if you work for math-tarded people, try to split the difference by increasing your salary by 10% and getting a bonus of 10% of that. 🙂 Yeah, that wasn’t on the table. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/14 "2012-05-09T13:26:17Z")
My annual bonus is typically quite small. It’s calculated based on profits and seniority, but it’s usually between 1% - 2%. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/15 "2012-05-09T13:30:56Z")
My bonus generally comes out to be the size of an regular paycheck… so whatever that works out to be percentage wise ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/16 "2012-05-09T14:21:32Z")
I get a profit percentage of the company I’m managing which has historically been anywhere from 80% to 130% of the annual salary. Of course, the “annual salary” takes this bonus into account. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/17 "2012-05-09T14:22:01Z")
My bonus is complicated. I put a percentage of my annual salary into an incentive program. That amount is increased based on a company number and my own performance (or decreased, but that would mean it was time to leave). After everything it pays off well. I could make it much larger by increasing the amount in the incentive program, but that feels too much like gambling. At the moment there’s no pro rata basis for the bonus if you leave the company before year end (not sure if that’s legal, but no one has challenged it). I negotiated the amounts when I took the job, but some employees there much longer were forced into the incentive program at some point, reducing their weekly income, and were somewhat unhappy about it, even though it’s paid off well for them. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/18 "2012-05-09T15:20:18Z")
I’m in finance, so my bonus has varied from over 125% of my base salary to a low of around 15% of my base - although that’s slightly mis-leading in that companies have different pay structures. Some companies I worked for were extremely bonus-heavy (for example, low base salary, but bonus would be 75-200% of base), others were base-heavy (high base, bonus maybe 15-50%). On average it’s been about 25-35% I guess. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/19 "2012-05-09T15:50:42Z")
It varies based on profitability but over the last few years has ranged from 2-3%. It’s completely unguaranteed so it’s been quite a nice surprise the last few years. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307/20 "2012-05-09T18:03:44Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > My bonus generally comes out to be the size of an regular paycheck.. so whatever that works out to be percentage wise Well, if you’re paid weekly it’s about 2%. Paid biweekly it’s closer to 4%. Paid monthly it’s over 8%. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-get-a-bonus-what-of-your-base-pay-is-it-normally/621307.md?page=2)