I work for a city government. Up until 2009 or so, they gave bonuses... but the previous mayor/council weren't any good at actually balancing the budget. So new mayor comes in, realizes what's up, and shuts down bonuses, in addition to laying off a bunch of people. City is doing fine now, and there's extra money about. Instead of going back to bonuses as a percentage, they've decided that you can 'earn' bonuses by doing extra projects. This, of course, means that I will never get a bonus because I already work, on average, more than 40 hours a week. So only those people with less responsibility can earn bonuses. And this makes me crazy.