It's that time of the year again for many companies: the distribution of annual bonuses. The extra cash may mean $1000, which predoctoral scientist Jeffrey Rice - now a sixth-year graduate student in chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara - received in 2004 after exceptional completion of an internship at Applied Biosystems. Or it could mean $4.5 million, which Amgen awarded its CEO, Kevin Sharer, in December 2005.
Bonuses are "very important because your base salary is never going to really do it. Your life standard can only become really high if you have a considerable income besides your base salary," says Ahmet Tezel, a director of research and development at Allergan Medical who has considered jobs at startups this past year. "Sometimes base salary won't buy you a house, but a bonus will."
So where have bonuses been going, and what should you expect this year?
...
