I am in Kentucky. Our employer gives us two bonuses a year. In the past the trend has been, whatever is given in spring, the winter bonus is double. We received our bonus today and it was 2/3rds less than normal. They will not tell anyone what it is based on. I asked why it was so low and they replied that they do not have to give anything. I was told that this is part of my salary three times over the past two years but now it seems to have changed. What I was wondering is, is this legal? Can they just pull this out from under you?

What I was wondering is, is this legal? Can they just pull this out from under you? Yes and yes.

While I think it's a bad practice for an employer not to explain the basis on which they calculate bonuses, they don't have to. Nor does a trend of the year-end bonus being double the spring bonus obligate them to do that year after year. One can only guess that this year's profits were down at your company.

Yes they claim the profits are down. They had "accidently" overbilled the government for years and they wanted there money back. Now we are paying the price I guess for their mistake and their lawyer fees. Thanks for the response.

If they overbilled the government, that means that you and your co-workers received higher bonuses in the past than you should have. I do understand that receiving such a small bonus when you were expecting something larger, especially at this time of year, is an unpleasant surprise.

Unless you have a binding, enforceable contract that guarantees you will receive bonuses of x size, they have no legal obligation to provide bonuses at all.

Now I have a question for you. Why are you posting a Kentucky question on the Connecticut forum?? :confused:

I could not find it...sorry

Don't repost it now; we'll leave it alone. I may move it later. But if you have another question, just scroll down the page where you found this one; Kentucky is represented in more or less alphabetical order, just like all the rest of the states.