A bonus is an annual payment, normally paid at the end of a company's financial year, over and above your base salary. It make possible the concept of "variable pay" whereby employees; remunearion will vary depending on selected factors. Typically people talk about their bonus in terms of %age of salary. However, the calculation method for a bonus in a specific year can be a bit more complex. For example, at my current employer, the company performance in the year determines the size of the bonus pool. In a dire year, the bonus pool might be 0% funded, which means no bonuses for anyone. In a good year, it would be 100% funded. Employees will be told what %age of their salary they are eligible for - and this can be further varied by performance rating. For example, a Manager level employee, with an Above Average rating could be eligible for 10% bonus. But they would only get 10% of their salary if the bonus pool was 100% funded. The %age that an employee is eligible for typically increases with seniority as the theory is that the more senior you are the more you can influence the performance of the company (not really fair to reward lowly analysts with a bonus when the company has a stonking year and penalise them for a bad year). I think typically bonuses start being paid at Manager level. And I think there either is or isn't a bonus structure in place at a company - not aware of individuals being able to negotiate a special bonus plan just for themselves (imagine this would be a bit too onerous to manage).
