Bonus Time!

I get a bonus this year! Finally! Wahoo! See, though I will have been working with this company for 5 years in July, I was a contractor for most of that time, and was just hired permanently last year. So this is my first year of getting to enjoy a bonus, the first installment of which will be in tomorrow's paycheck. My company does it very oddly. You get 80% of it at first, and the final 20% comes about 6 weeks later (after taxes are filed, I guess). And for me, the whole shebang was lessened by the fact that I was only an employee for 67% of last year and my bonus was adjusted accordingly.

Why are bonuses taxed so much!? I do not understand. My installment now was $1467, of which I get $874. 40% straight to Uncle Sam! Sigh. It is appreciated, though, although I won't be doing anything earth-shattering, just paying back my EF, from which I borrowed some money to pay for my CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) share, which will get us fresh groceries every week for 30 weeks! and also ran up a small balance on the Southwest credit card on which I charge day-to-day purchases and pay off every month.

It's just funny to watch something like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and the way bonuses were often associated with Christmas. At the same time, that movie has a good lesson - don't count on bonuses. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

I do wish it were a little higher - in fact, it likely could have been. The company grades our performance on several measures to determine what percentage of our salary our bonus is. One of these measures is safety, and I think we did horribly last year, with several recordable injuries. Sad to think that someone smashing their finger in a filing cabinet can contribute to thousands of people getting a smaller bonus, but, hey, it's free money and I am grateful for it.