"Bonus"?
What's a "year-end bonus"? Is that something rich people get for jobs that involve pushing papers around?
Bonuses are a tool that favour employers, not employees, so you should be happy not to get one.
Imagine if your employer withheld half your pay every check, and instead of paying it throughout the year, paid it all in a lump sum at the end of the year. Then further imagine that if your employer was not satisfied with your performance, they could retroactively halve your pay by never paying you out the half they withheld over the course of the year.
Yes, that's what a cash bonus is: a tool whereby an employer defers pay and reserves the right to cancel it entirely. Compensation structures that include a bonus are bad for you as an employee, not good. Bonuses are not magical free money on top of your normal pay; in industries like finance and software engineering, they are a part of your normal compensation structure, but paid on a deferred basis.
Yeah, this is kind of bullshit. In my industry, you can work for the goverment, where you get no bonus and less salary (but significantly more vacation time), or you can work for a corporation that offers a higher salary
and a bonus. Plus, there are all sorts of bonuses available: Last year, I earned ~$5500 annual bonus (paid out to all employees based on a formula that includes personal performance, region performance, and company performance). I also got and additional $2500 for special projects that I took on, that were in no way related to the annual bonus that is available to all employees. Then I switched companies, and got a $14,000 signing bonus, $11,000 of which was "netted up for taxes". And since I pay so little income tax, I got $4000 of the income tax that the new company paid back on my tax return this spring.
So, in total, I earned $26,000 above my normal salary last year. And if I were doing comparable work for the government, my salary would be ~$20,000 less and I would have not even had the opportunity for the bonus(es).