Bonus

“ It is quite possible that the workman who, in the hope of earning ‘bonus to labor,’ has done work 10 per cent in excess of the normal standard, may, even under a liberal scheme, find that, instead of receiving an addition to his normal wages of, say, 7 per cent, the bad management of his employer has reduced his bonus to so low a level that he has to be content with a supplement equivalent to only 2 per cent on his wages, or that, as has been the case in a large proportion of the schemes ... ”

“ Under the "three-rate with increased rate system," which experience has shown to be a most advanced plan for compensating workmen, the worker receives one bonus for exactness as to methods, that is, he receives one bonus if he does the task exactly as he is instructed to do it as to methods ”

“ That is, we are going to give each one of you men who started out with us, and who have done such fine, loyal work, a good-sized cash bonus. I perhaps don't need to tell you that I never made a speech in my life—so my friends say—but money is a loud talker ”

“ An average earning power continuously higher than usual.
3. A lower cost per unit to the employer as wages automatically increase.
4. A supplemental earning power, or bonus, to the worker above the day wage, the bonus being based on efficiency.
The premium system is a combination of day wage and piece rate, involving the establishment of standard times for stated tasks. It is based on the theory that if, when a standard time has been fairly established, the worker performs a task in less than standard time, he is entitled to a bonus, or extra pay, for the time saved. ”

“ Under all types of management, the principal rewards consist of promotion and pay, pay being a broad word used here to include regular wages, a bonus, shorter hours, other forms of remuneration or recompense; anything which can be given to the man who does the work to benefit him and increase his desire to continue doing the work. Punishments may be negative, that is, they may simply take the form of no reward ”

“ Once the total purchases are known the bonus remains to be calculated. Generally, the proportion between the gross total of sales and the net profits realised is taken, and this proportion is paid on the purchases of each member. Thus, if a society sold a million pounds' worth of goods and made ;i 50,000 net profit, or 15 per cent., the member who has bought 100 worth of goods has a right to 15 bonus. ”

“ Failure under the task with a bonus system involves a corresponding loss of the extra premium or bonus, but the workman, since he is paid a given price per hour, receives his ordinary day's pay in case of failure and suffers no additional loss beyond that of the extra premium whether he may have fallen short of the task to the extent of one piece or a dozen. ”

“ At the General Meeting, on the 31st May last, A BONUS was declared of nearly Two Per Cent. per annum on the amount assured, or at the rate of from THIRTY to upwards of SIXTY per cent. on the Premiums paid.
POLICIES share in the Profits, even if ONE PREMIUM ONLY has been paid. ”

“ Where a lessor receives a bonus in addition to royalties, there shall be allowed as a depletion deduction in respect of the bonus an amount equal to that proportion of the cost or value of the property on the basic date which the amount of the bonus bears to the sum of the bonus and the royalties expected to be received. ”

“ The men invariably respond to this stimulus, and often in a remarkable degree. It is nothing unusual for a man to increase his output 50 per cent upon the introduction of a bonus system of payment; and there are many instances of increase amounting to 200 per cent. ”

“ The writer repeats, therefore, that in order to have any hope of obtaining the initiative of his workmen the manager must give some special incentive to his men beyond that which is given to the average of the trade. This incentive can be given in several different ways, as, for example, the hope of rapid promotion or advancement; higher wages, either in the form of generous piece-work prices or of a premium or bonus of some kind for good and rapid work; shorter hours of labor; ”

“ A further modification of the bonus system is advisable in some cases, where an extra bonus is given for exceedingly high performance, such, for example, as paying the men an extra cent bonus, making 3 cents above, say, 90 or 100 feet per 8 hours. It is well, however, to apply this modified arrangement only after there has been an elimination of the poorest men. ”

“ Your force can always find plenty of reasons for striking, without your furnishing an extra one in the poor quality of the golf-balls that you give them. So I make it a rule that everything I hand out to my men shall come in the course of business, and be given on a business basis. When profits are large, they get a large bonus and a short explanation of the business reasons in the office and the country that have helped them to earn it; when profits are small, the bonus shrinks and the explanation expands. ”

“ Once a year there is a social gathering of all members and friends, with tea, etc., and an annual bonus in kind is given to the members, of material at wholesale prices, purchased by the society by means of general contributions for its work. ”

“ One man was particularly jubilant over the fact that he had secured the top figure—$300 bonus—not only for himself and wife, but for his two daughters as well, and was returning to his Wisconsin home $1200 better off than when he came out. ”

“ As fair or as superior as this bonus may be in relation to the prevailing rate in the market, managers say that the workers are apt in time to fall below the standard as their work becomes routine, unless the incentive after a time is increased or changed in character. ”

“ Therefore we offer you the position with great pleasure and honor to ourselves. The remuneration for the first year will be five thousand American dollars, gold. After the first year, if our relations are mutually satisfactory, we will offer you a five-year contract with bonus terms which should more than double your salary. ”

“ Any man failing to bring his book and wage-notes to the above-named offices for more than four weeks from the date of any such notes, will not be entitled to have his earnings entered among the sums on which a bonus may become payable. ”

“ Not only are they of great value as a 'time saving appliance,' the computation of the bonus or premiums earned by a number of men taking only one-tenth the time by the aid of these tables compared with ordinary calculations, but they possess the additional advantage of being less liable to error, as there is practically no possibility of a mistake occurring."—Extract from Preface. ”

“ We shall have to act as circumstances guide us. If we succeed in getting back my valuables there will be a bonus paid to every man aboard of two hundred and fifty dollars over and above his wages, Mr. ”

“ In judging of the relative merits of fixed salaries as compared with other methods the experiences of individual firms offer no certain data. The relative merits and demerits are best disclosed by a psychological analysis of the manner in which the various devices appeal to the employee's instincts and reason.
When wages are based on commission, piece rate, or a bonus or premium system, the stimulus to action is constantly present. Every stroke of the hammer, every sale made, every figure added, increases the wage. The wage thus continuously beckons the worker to greater accomplishment. ”

“ The figures for France are not known, as the societies do not state their bonuses, but it must be admitted that in France for reasons which we shall give later the bonuses distributed are very much lower ; they hardly ever amount to ^4, and are often less. Still they are benefits to small households, as is proved by the discontent expressed by the members if in any year there should be no bonus. ”

“ By means of cash payment or stock bonuses, he is induced to work better and to be more careful of tools and machinery, while his expectation of a share in the success of the business stimulates his interest and his energy and keeps him better natured. ”

“ In addition, to give the system a start, and in order that the workmen shall derive a substantial benefit at once, the bonuses are to be calculated for three years back. The men who have been in the regular employ of the company for the past three years will thus have sums varying from twenty-five to thirty dollars placed to their credit at once. ”

“ Still we cannot disguise the fact, that a vast amount of the treasure so levied, and for every shilling of which the industry of the nation was mortgaged, never reached the coffers of the state, 667 but passed in the shape of bonuses, premiums, and exorbitant contracts, to rear up those fortunes which have been the wonder and admiration of the world. ”

“ He knows that he would not be thanked for the information, and he is also aware that if the scheme were adopted his prices would consequently be reduced. In more up to date sheds, and particularly in America, bonuses are given for the best work made and every man is induced, by all reasonable means, to think out new methods. ”

“ Gifts come from a region outside claims, outside rational justification. They are the expression of arbitrary will. I give because I want to, and the other knows he has no right beyond my inclination to what he is receiving. Were there legitimate grounds for my pretended gift it would be merely the payment of a debt and would afford no such pleasure as does the over-and-above of a gift. A clerk may have satisfaction in his salary, but his feeling on receiving his employer’s gift is something altogether different. ”

“ Credit him, at a fixed price, for every day’s work he does, and for all above a certain easily accomplished task in a day, at an increased price, so that his reward will be in an increasing ratio to his perseverance. ”

“ In the next place, a benefit is not repaid in the same manner as a loan: you have no reason for expecting me to offer you any payment; the account between us depends upon the feelings alone. What I say will not appear difficult, although it may not at first accord with your ideas, if you will do me the favour to remember that there are more things than there are words to express them. There is an enormous mass of things without names, which we do not speak of under distinctive names of their own, but by the names of other things transferred to them. ”

“ Will it make any difference to you, sir, if I give you six more cakes in the bargain?— (throwing in six more.) All right, my friends.
"You can't give in vain to a good cause. [Pg 410] Remember, 'God loveth a cheerful giver.' Now gentlemen, who'll have the next, last, and only remaining lot for the money? Here's one, another makes two, one more are three, another makes four, one more are five and one are six, and six more added make another dozen, the only remaining lot for the money. ”

“ I felt that I was one of the men exerting themselves toward that uplift. Business has other compensations than the profits that one counts in money; there is a genuine satisfaction in doing part of the constructive work in the growth of an industry. ”

“ But mark with me that each deed which is good or seemly is like a gain and an increment, but a wicked deed is like a loss; and as there is a certain gain when the money is greater and another when it is less, and as there are differences of more or less, so according to the good deeds, there is as it were a valuing of gains more or less. ”

“ Some writers think that there is one who bestows a benefit, one who receives it, and a third who returns it; others say that they represent the three sorts of benefactors, those who bestow, those who repay, and those who both receive and repay them. But take whichever you please to be true; what will this knowledge profit us? ”

“ The Propositions.—First, whosoever will be pleased to put in five shillings shall draw a lot, his fortune to receive the greatest or meanest prize, or throw away his intended spending money on a blank. Secondly, whoever will adventure deeper, putting in twenty-five shillings, shall receive, if such his bad fortune be that he draws all blanks, a prize presented to him by the author of more value than his money (if offered to be sold) though proffered ware, &c. ”

“ Now, I am going to make a bargain with you, Dan, and I hope you will keep it honorably. Here are twelve good-sized drawers, one for each month of the year, and they shall be yours as fast as you earn them, by doing the little duties that belong to you. I believe in rewards of a certain kind, especially for young folks; they help us along, and though we may begin by being good for the sake of the reward, if it is rightly used, we shall soon learn to love goodness for itself. ”

“ Rewards form one part of our plan. They not only have the earnings of their work, but we endeavour to stimulate them by a system of marks. We divide our women into classes, with a monitor over every class, and our matron at the head. It is the duty of every monitor to take up to the matron every night an account of the conduct of her class, which is set down; and if they have a certain number of what we call good marks at the end of any fixed period, they have for rewards such prizes as we think proper to give them—generally small articles of clothing, or Bibles and Testaments. ”

“ I own it would be highly agreable to me, to have always a sum of money lying by me, besides my income; for I do assure you, Sir, that it is much more a scheme of economy than of expence. I should employ about seven or eight hundred of it to encrease my annuity during a year and a half and to enable me to travel agreably. ”

“ My rewards are not drawers, or presents, or holidays, but they are things which I like as much as you do the others. The good behavior and success of my boys is one of the rewards I love best, and I work for it as I want you to work for your cabinet. Do what you dislike, and do it well, and you get two rewards—one, the prize you see and hold ”