Hello,

my company gives a quarterly bonus and my division will be meeting the necessary stipulations for that bonus in the 4th quarter, which ends at the end of Dec. Anyway, I am considering giving my 2 weeks notice shortly and working through the remainder of the 4th quarter. Is there any law in CA that states that if an employee works during the timeframe in which a bonus is paid that they are entitled to the bonus if they have left the company after the close of the quarter in question?

so basically: you work through the quarter, bonus is paid during the first month of next quarter however you do not work for company any more, but since you were part of the team that earned the bonus last quarter --> are you entitled to it after having left the company?

any help would be appreciated

I'd like to know the answer to that question too! If I find out anything I'll let you know, otherwise if you got a response, would you let me know? There's at least some suggestion that you do have to pay such a bonus (at least in the absence ofan articulated policy to the contrary, and possibly even in that case).

As I said, I'm looking for the same answer, so I have not yet begun to research!

Your company's policy will determine this. Most likely, the policy is that you must still work there. In essense, the bonus is paid for 2 things: (1) meeting your quota for the quater and (2) remaining employed until the bonus is paid. If you don't meet both, then you don't get the bonus.

Of course, if the company tells you that only #1 is required, then you don't have to work there. These can be tricky cases, and you really have to look at the language where the bonus is promised. If the language is silent about it, but it is clear that the bonus is paid later, usually it is implied that you must still work there. However, if the delay is only to compute that the bonus is due, then it will be due even if you don't work there. For instance, it might take several weeks to compute the "profit" for the year. If the delay is only to compute this profit and pay you a percentage as a bonus, then it is likely that the bonus would be due even if you still don't work there, as long as nothing to the contrary is stated.