Check your state law on this. In some states, the bonus has to be paid of they don't have an explicit policy stating that you have to be employed to receive it. This is usually limited to bonus that are calculable and not just discretionary ones. There is a difference between "Happy Holidays, here is $2,000" and a compensation structure where you are bonused 1/3rd of anything you bring in over $300,000 as an example.
Thanks, I'm in California. It looks like I'm pretty much leaving it behind:
"A bonus is performance-based compensation to be paid to an employee in addition to the employee's
regular salary. (Duffy Brothers v. Bing & Bing (1939) 217 App.Div. 10, 215, N.Y.S. 755) In general, an
employee who voluntarily quits his or her employment before the payout date of the bonus is not entitled to
receive the bonus. (Lucian v. All State Trucking (1981) 116 Cal.App.3d 972) Bonuses constitute additional
salary, and thus, must be paid in accordance with Labor Code §§ 201 and 202 when an employee is terminated
or voluntarily quits his or her employment."
Also, I found the company policy on it and it only seems to address bonus payouts for involuntary termination (and in this case they will pay out the pro-rated compensation). I couldn't find anyting in the policy mentioning anything about voluntary termination, which probably means they're just not going to pay it out.
EDIT: just stumbled across this -
https://www.quora.com/What-does-California-labor-law-say-about-bonus-payments-and-resigning-before-the-end-of-the-quarterThe bonus, in my context, is one that includes goals and targets and isn't just some "merry Christmas here's $5000" type of bonus. The goals/targets are not fully quantifiable, like "I sold X laptops in 30 days" but are more like "goal 1: help transition the work to location B - weighted @ 30%" I wonder if this changes things. If it does, have if they don't pay me, it sounds like I could take them to court? But the bonus amount isn't super-high either (it's like $2500 before tax) - if I took them to court and hired an attorney, I'd probably end up spending more just to win.