Employment contracts generally identify the base wages that workers should receive. They also typically define the benefits package provided by the company. Any supplements to base pay are also important inclusions in a contract.
The employer might offer bonuses in certain cases. Performance-based bonuses or bonuses based on sales, either made by the company or by the employee, are common. Some organizations offer retention bonuses. Others promise bonuses not outlined in a contract as a means of motivating workers to go above and beyond.
Can employers then refuse to pay bonuses if workers technically meet the criteria to receive them?
Not all bonuses are discretionary
Some bonuses are truly perks offered out of gratitude or as a means of sharing the good fortune of the company with the workers who helped produce its success. Those discretionary bonuses are not part of a worker’s pay technically and are therefore voluntary.
However, bonuses included in a contract or promised to workers as part of an incentive program are nondiscretionary bonuses. The company does not have the right to refuse to pay those bonuses if the worker has fulfilled the requirements to receive them. The bonuses are considered part of the worker’s pay, and refusing to provide the bonus is the same as refusing to provide other wages.
Workers dealing with the frustration of an unpaid bonus may have grounds for a wage lawsuit to collect the pay that they haven’t received. Requesting the payment of nondiscretionary bonuses through litigation is sometimes necessary, although employees may benefit from seeking assistance in validating that their employers may have violated their rights. And that’s okay.