Bonuses are a type of compensation paid to an eligible employee in addition to a previously set hourly wage, contract amount or annual salary. While many companies provide bonuses in the form of cash, a bonus can take any form as long as it provides value to employees as well as the organization.

An annual bonus is usually based on overall company performance. This means you may get a large or small bonus (or no bonus at all) depending on how successful your organization or specific department was that year, as well as how big a part of that success you were. This can also be considered profit sharing.