How common is it for a company to give a maximum of 8 months bonus in Tokyo?

[truth239]

@neuric My 100% target bonus is about 6 months, but the past few years I've been getting around 8 months due to a combination of my own performance and company doing well, so definitely can happen. Total comp is about 15m.

 

[baltazaresguerra]

@neuric Yes, it is possible for large companies to give out such big bonuses for regular employees (especially large tech companies). My year-to-year average bonus have always hovered around 6-8 months.

The main downside however, is that the bonus is going to be based on your performance and you would never know for sure if you’re getting the higher end of the scale.

What you need to clarify is, what is the baseline expected bonus for someone who performs “on target”, and how this will be evaluated for you personally. Then you want to check how much is based on personal performance and how much for company performance.

For example, in one of my previous companies the policy was 80% based on personal performance review, 20% on company performance. Baseline for someone on target was 4 months, and for the highest evaluations it goes up to 8 months. Depending on the company this can be very transparent and open information, so all you got to do is ask.

 

[resjudicata]

@neuric It's uncommon, but not impossible.
My previous company gave out 6.6 months of bonuses per year some time ago.
Now my friends who still work there, said this year it will be probably reach 7.8 months bonus per year.
It strongly depends on their sales.
Since manager salaries are strongly regulated in Japan, high profit is often passed on to the employees.

 

[silverfinch]

@neuric If they say it’s UP TO XX months, expect it to be very rarely given to only handful few. Ask about their evaluation system and how many months the middle range is and that’s what you’ll get about 90 percent of the time you spend with the firm.

 

[neuric]

@silverfinch They specifically mentioned it's around 4-5 months

 

[interesting2]

@neuric I just had a few questions,

1. What is the role offered? Like Senior Software Engineer, etc.
2. How many years of experience do you have?

 

[albinoguitman]

@neuric The bonus has 2 disadvantages, specially if you were in IT where people tend to stay under 5 years in a company (heck, under 2 years in the USA), but something I've seen very commonly in Japan:

• Usually you don't receive the "first bonus" that could be e.g. 1-3 months after you join, since you were not there for the whole period.
• Usually if you want to quit, do it after receiving the last bonus, otherwise if you e.g. give 2 months notice and your last bonus happens within that period, you will also not receive it.

If the bonus is annual, that is a lot of money to be missing. With bad timing at hiring/leaving, you can miss almost 2 full bonus. What do you prefer, to potentially miss 4 months of bonus or 8 months? So as others have said, purely from the money point of view the 10.3 is a lot safer/better.

Since you have nothing to lose with company B, how about counter-offering them? 11M annual + 4 months bonus? (I hope you didn't disclose your "offer from competitor", but from how razor-thin the margin from those two offers is I fear you might)

 

[jewelpet]

@neuric well honestly said, those are both a lot more than the average person is getting. more than double the average. so either way financially you can enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle. it might not be the same as in other cuntry but a good one in Japan.

Therefore I would say salary does not matter here. either way you will get more than enough. What I would focus on is the other factors related to the positions. Do you need to do overtime, can you work remote, is it easy to use your holidays, how stressful each position is? Just forget the salary for a moment and compare these and you should have your answer.

 

[guardian116]

@neuric Choose the one that is least Japanese.

The differences could be:
1. Working until 5 or working until 7 or 9.
2. Struggling to take 2 days off a year, or being ordered to take two weeks off a year, with two weeks in one block.

 

[pixeloriousspriteson]

@neuric My company offers around 6 months of bonus for my grade (3*2) which can slide up and down now based on your performance. So it is not unheard off.

I think you should likely choose the company as the pay is very similar and either company could duck your bonus, with the later company less likely to push it all the way to 0.

If you are all about pay, you need to counter and take the risk one of them or both withdraw.

 

[paulthomas]

@neuric It's very strange and a bit absurd.

I'm at a company with 8 months bonus as standard (4 months guaranteed, ~4 months reflecting individual/department/company performance). Everyone has a decent monthly wage and again around half of the "bonus" is actually a deferred payment, but that "8 month" number sounds so extreme that we're switching. Put the guaranteed four months back into monthly salary and keep just that 4 month standard bonus.

That second offer sounds like a bait and switch.

 

[lyosha]

@neuric Really common in executive positions

 

[neuric]

@lyosha But surely the above salary is not an executive salary?

 

[lyosha]

@neuric Yeah that's true.

 

[alan1111]

@neuric Always go with higher base pay, bonuses are never guaranteed and in many cases they will always find reasons to pay the lower end of the bonus.

 

[darrellgc]

@neuric Do not go for it if the bonus is variable or performance based as it could be a bump to attract you and not be carried forward. Lock in the base salary.