What is a permanent bonus and how is it paid?

How are salaries calculated?

Wages are a quantitative expression of work performed. That is, during a specific period of time, an employee performs some work. For this he receives payment, that is, a salary.

Its size is specified in the employment contract. But the law sets a minimum threshold below which the employer cannot lower the monetary reward. In this case, the employee must work a full month at full production.

The employment contract specifies the value indicated in the staffing table. It is drawn up by the responsible employee and approved by management. The procedure for awarding bonuses to employees is prescribed in the relevant Regulations for the enterprise.

All time worked must be accounted for accordingly. For this purpose, there is a time sheet in which management notes presence/absence at the workplace, full/part-time. At the end of each month, the timesheet is submitted to the appropriate department for payroll calculation.

The main document for calculating wages is the payslip, for payment – the payslip. These documents record not only the accrual procedure, but also deductions and bonuses.

What are the salary supplements?

An allowance is a separate type of payment intended to additionally stimulate employees to work. For example, there is a bonus for continuous work experience at a given enterprise. Sometimes it is necessary to give a person a salary increase, and he will go to study courses and improve his qualifications.

The bonus is voluntary. Its accrual and payment is the employer’s right, not an obligation. Depending on the activity of the enterprise, allowances may be as follows:

"for mentoring." Paid to those who have worked for many years at one enterprise and have now taken upon themselves (in addition to the main functions) the training of young employees;
"for qualification." Paid only to those specialists who have a high level of qualifications, which is confirmed by relevant documents and training;
of a personal nature. For example, a certain valuable employee decided to quit. To retain him, management decides to pay him bonuses;
“for having an academic degree or title.” If an employee is a candidate of sciences, then this is a reason to give him an additional salary;
“for access to state secrets.” Relies on those employees who are related to government or diplomatic structures and work with information related to state secrets;
"for knowledge of foreign languages." If an enterprise exports products abroad, then having an employee with knowledge of the language on staff is a necessity.

Important! Supplements may be temporary. They can be appointed by order of the manager at any time. But before these allowances are cancelled, the employee must be warned.

General provisions on permanent bonuses

Art. 191 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation gives employers the right to encourage employees of the organization by paying them bonuses. According to this norm, bonuses are paid for the conscientious fulfillment by employees of their obligations. These are incentive payments.

Conscientiousness in the performance of duties is a rather vague criterion, so organizations often create their own bonus systems, which set out the procedure for calculating and paying bonuses, establishing their sizes, and the basis for bonuses.

The law does not prohibit employers from paying bonuses to employees on an ongoing basis. Bonuses can be paid monthly, quarterly, or annually. It is also possible to establish other time intervals, for example, once every two months.

There are two options for fixing the procedure for paying permanent bonuses:

In the employment contract, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 57 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
In the internal acts of the organization (in a collective agreement, agreement, local act), by virtue of the provisions of Part 2 of Art. 135 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

In addition, permanent bonuses can be provided at the discretion of the employer. For example, every month the head of the organization will decide on bonuses for employees and issue orders about this. This situation is the exception rather than the rule.

What is salary

Some workers do not see the difference between salary and wages. But it's not always the same!

When an employee first gets hired, he signs an employment contract. It indicates exactly the salary. That is, a certain fixed fee, from which the calculation will be made if the employee decides to go on vacation or go on sick leave. It is from this amount, without any allowances or additional payments, that benefits will be calculated.

What is the minimum salary

In Russia there is such a thing as the minimum wage - the minimum wage. That is, if an employee worked a full month, did not get sick, did not go on vacation, did not take it at his own expense, etc., he cannot be paid less than the amount established by the state at the legislative level.

Not so long ago, the minimum wage was equal to the subsistence level. This became necessary due to the constant rise in inflation. In addition, a person cannot earn less than he needs to feed himself and pay for utilities.

The minimum wage is set once a year. In 2021, its value is 11,280 rubles. That is, with full employment, a person cannot theoretically earn less than this amount.

There is also the concept of “minimum wage”. This is the smallest amount of money that an employee in a particular region of residence can receive for his work. This indicator is used to calculate mandatory insurance contributions to the PRF, Social Insurance Fund and medical insurance.

The minimum wage cannot be lower than the minimum wage. If, according to the data, such an incident occurred in a certain region, then the salary indicator will be equal to the minimum wage.

In addition to the minimum wage, the employer can make allowances and additional payments, award bonuses and other payments.

36. Prizes and rewards

In many organizations there is a concept "bonus system"

which is necessary to increase the material interest of employees, increase production efficiency, quality of work, etc. This system is enshrined in the “Regulations on bonuses based on performance” and is regulated within the organization.

Specific indicators and bonus conditions, upon fulfillment of which the employee has the right to demand an appropriate bonus payment, and the employer is obliged to make it, are established by the provisions.

Indicators and conditions for bonuses are formed taking into account the tasks that are typical for this category of workers in the process of achieving a high final result of work. Thus, workers are rewarded for fulfilling production tasks, saving raw materials, materials, and energy; for increasing labor productivity, improving the quality of products, mastering new equipment and technology. Employees of the technical control service are rewarded depending on product quality indicators. The conditions and indicators of bonuses for executives, specialists, and employees link their right to bonuses with high final results, the introduction of the latest achievements of science and technology into production, growth in labor productivity, effective use of production potential, etc.

Bonuses paid to employees can be divided into two categories - stipulated

and
not provided for
by the remuneration system.

Bonuses provided for by the remuneration system:

The employer has the right (but is not obligated) to independently develop a bonus system (taking into account the opinion of the representative body of employees). Bonuses paid in accordance with the approved bonus system are an additional part of the remuneration system.

The bonus system implies the establishment of specific indicators, upon fulfillment of which a certain circle of employees is paid a bonus in a specific amount and within a specified time frame.

For example:

1) absence of violations of labor discipline - 15% of the monthly salary;

2) increase in sales volume against the planned one – 7% of the excess volume;

3) rationalization proposal – 1200 rubles. etc.

Bonus indicators are developed in accordance with the specifics of a particular enterprise. The significance of the indicators is that they are legal facts that give the employee the right to a bonus. In other words, the employer assumes certain obligations to pay bonuses to employees. Therefore, an employee who has fulfilled the established targets has the right to demand that the employer pay a bonus, including by contacting the labor dispute resolution body.

Bonuses not provided for by the remuneration system:

Bonuses of the second type do not relate to remuneration systems and are paid on the basis of the overall assessment of the work of a given employee as a one-time incentive.

In such cases, employees do not have the right to make any demands regarding the payment of bonuses, since the employer does not have any obligations to employees and is guided by its own considerations as to whom, when and in what amount to pay.

Monthly and quarterly bonuses are calculated as a percentage of the amount of earnings. At the same time, the Regulations

payment of bonuses in fixed amounts may be provided.

If employees have a monthly bonus (the “Bonus” requisite,

directory element
“Employees”)
, it is calculated automatically in the program during payroll calculations.
“Enter calculation for an employee”
or
“Enter calculation for a list of employees”
buttons are used to accrue any other quarterly bonuses.

In the screen form of the document, you should indicate the type of bonus being accrued and the period for which it is accrued. Depending on the type of premium, its size is indicated as a percentage or a fixed amount. The document for the list of employees has a tabular part that lists all the employees of the organization named in the bonus order.

Table of contents

What is a premium

In Art. 129 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation states that bonuses are included in wages. A bonus is an additional monetary reward, a payment for any differences one employee has over another. The nature of the bonus is such that it relates to incentive payments.

Its payment is also not the responsibility of the employer, it is his right. The procedure for paying bonuses to employees is regulated by local regulations of the enterprise. As a rule, the employer additionally develops and approves the Regulations on bonus payments to employees.

Important! If there is a local regulation that states that it is necessary to reward employees for exceeding the volume of completed products, then the employer is obliged to do this. If there is no such record, then payment is at the discretion of management.

If management does not fulfill its obligations regarding mandatory bonus payments to employees, the latter can file a complaint against them with regulatory authorities, in particular, with the labor inspectorate. It is possible to demand the collection of unpaid amounts, as well as compensation for each day of delay, only in court.

What is the award for?

The management of the enterprise is not prohibited from making additional cash payments not only for production achievements, but also on certain dates, for example, an anniversary, retirement, or the New Year. But, if we consider the issue from a taxation point of view, it is easier not to pay a premium, but to provide financial assistance. It is not subject to income tax.

In addition, management may simply decide to give bonuses to some or all employees for no reason. This is not prohibited by law!

Where in the organization’s documents is this type of incentive indicated?

Being a legal form of incentive, the assignment of a one-time bonus is based on documents regulating labor relations in the company. These include:

labor contract;
collective agreement;
wage regulations;
other internal documents containing clauses regulating the calculation and issuance of wages and bonuses.

A company may have a bonus provision in the form of a separately developed document that does not contradict the provisions of the collective agreement (you can find out how to draw up an order approving a bonus provision here).

The following points must be addressed in it:

conditions for issuing incentive payments;
size, procedure for calculating and issuing bonuses;
the circle of persons to whom the provision applies;
source of funding and distribution of bonuses within the organization.

Common mistakes in terms of remuneration in employment contracts

Some employers make the following mistakes when paying their employees. This could have dire consequences. Such errors include the absence in the employment contract of a specific figure that indicates the employee’s salary. Management often does this:

makes a reference in the employment contract to a local regulatory act that specifies the amount of his salary or tariff rate. The most common option is a reference to the staffing table;
makes no mention at all about the financial side of the issue.

Such actions are a violation of labor laws. The Labor Inspectorate, conducting scheduled and unscheduled inspections, will immediately identify these violations. For this, the employer will be held accountable in the form of a fine. If he continues to commit the same offenses, the fine will be several times greater.

Remuneration is an essential condition of the employment contract. Its change, especially downward, is possible only with the written consent of the employee himself.

Bonuses are built into the pay system of many employers. But it often happens that the salary in the company is small, and the majority of the pay comes from bonuses. If the relationship between the employee and the employer deteriorates and the employee loses this payment, will he be able to recover it in court by proving that it is obligatory? The outcome of a case always depends on the wording in the employer’s local regulations, so the courts have to engage in “literalism” when making a decision, says Intellect-S partner Anna Ustyushenko. It can be difficult for courts to deal with local acts of companies, because only one article is devoted to bonuses in the Labor Code, adds Anna Ivanova, head of the labor law practice at EPAM.

One such case reached the Supreme Court, in which the chief specialist of the analytical systems department of the banking technology department of CB Yugra, Anatoly Lipovets*, recovered a premium of 109,308 rubles. for January and February 2021 - the last two months of my work at this place. Lipovets's salary was 82,800 rubles, and he was entitled to a monthly bonus provided for by local regulations - the regulations on remuneration. The bonus was calculated based on 66.7% of the salary, multiplied by the coefficient of fulfillment of the general bank indicator.

66.7% of salary –

This is the basis for bonuses to Ugra Bank employees (multiplied by the general bank coefficient, which can be, for example, from 50% to 100%).

The bank did not pay Lipovets this bonus for the last two months, because the indicator was 0%, and none of the employees received the bonus. This payment is optional and is transferred only if financially possible, so the claim should be denied, the employer insisted. The former employee, in turn, insisted that the multiplication factor cannot be less than 50%. In support of his words, Lipovets referred to the regulations on remuneration of Ugra, which states that this figure “can be equal to 50%, 70%, 90% and 100%.”

The courts were divided on whether the bank should pay the premium. The Megion City Court of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra rejected Lipovets. The bonus, according to the Labor Code, is an optional incentive bonus, as stated in decision No. 2-1236. The court examined the history of such payments to Lipovets, and it turned out that in some months the plaintiff did not receive it, and in others it turned out to be less than usual. The court of KhMAO-Yugra, on the contrary, agreed with Lipovets that the minimum coefficient of 50% guarantees the employee a monthly bonus. “The employer cannot arbitrarily set the amount of the bonus or not pay it at his own discretion,” says definition 33-9868/2016.

About the essence of the bonus and the shortcomings of the bank

The appeal ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court, which noted that the employment contract with Lipovets did not provide for or guarantee him any bonus. The regulations on remuneration indicate that the payment of such bonuses depends on the results of the bank’s work; they are not included in the list of guaranteed payments. None of these documents states that the monthly bonus is a mandatory part of the salary, as noted in definition No. 69-KG17-22. Art. also speaks about the voluntariness of the award. 191 of the Labor Code, which makes payment dependent on various circumstances: how the employee performs his duties, the economic success of the company itself, or other conditions that the employer determines himself in local regulations.

In addition, the appeal found fault and procedural violations. The district court decided that the bank incorrectly calculated the premium coefficient, but did not invite the parties to justify this or that amount, and also refused to admit the bank to evidence that this figure was 0%. The appeal will have to correct these shortcomings with a new trial of the case.

If an employment contract or a local regulatory act (for example, a regulation on remuneration) does not directly establish that the bonus is a mandatory allowance, then its payment is not guaranteed, Olga Polezhaeva, deputy head of the labor law practice of the Ankor personnel holding, analyzes the outcome of the case. Ivanova gives an argument in favor of the employee: “The bonus is a conditional payment, but it becomes mandatory if the employee has fulfilled all the company’s conditions. In this case, not a single authority established that the plaintiff performed his duties in bad faith.” Advisor to the labor and migration law practice of Baker McKenzie Evgeny Reizman, on the contrary, is confident that the decision of the Supreme Court corresponds to the understanding of the essence of the bonus, which developed back in Soviet times: “Even the famous “thirteenth salary” in the USSR was not guaranteed and was paid at the end of the year from the profit of the enterprise "

As Ustyushenko points out, the employer made a mistake, which led to a lengthy trial. The bank set a clear percentage of the salary (66.7%) as the base bonus, without indicating that even in this case it is not guaranteed - the Intellect-S partner draws attention to this inaccuracy in the act. In her opinion, an important role in the outcome of the case was played by the fact that Lipovets’ salary was quite large by the standards of the region. Ustyushenko suggests that the decision under the same conditions could have been different if the salary had been, for example, 10% and the bonus 90%.

“Judicial practice on labor compensation has always been based on the fact that bonuses and other incentive payments are not mandatory for the employer and therefore are not subject to recovery by the court. In this sense, the decision of the Supreme Court was predictable,” noted lawyer, partner of LDD Law Firm Andrey Popov. “The court found that the payment of the bonus is carried out in accordance with the Regulations on Bonuses. The employer issued an order that the bonus in accordance with the Regulations is 0% for all employees. The situation complies with the law (at least the opposite has not been proven). So the determination of the Supreme Court is quite logical,” agreed Mitra Law Firm lawyer Dmitry Drobyazko. “When considering cases of this category, the courts always attach fundamental importance to the content of a specific employment contract and local acts of the employer regarding bonuses. At the same time, we are studying how these documents are formulated: can a bonus be considered a mandatory component of remuneration or should it be attributed exclusively to the voluntary reward of an employee for conscientious work, and also whether the bonus is included in the remuneration system,” explained the lawyer, partner of AB “ Yablokov and partners", K. Yu. n. Elena Voronina.

Lawyers provided advice to employees and employers in similar disputes.

Dispute about collecting bonuses: how to behave as an employee

Ustyushenko gives advice to the employee:

Carefully study the local regulations that provide for the procedure for bonuses, keep a copy for yourself or make an extract.
If at the familiarization stage there are “loopholes” that will allow the employer to cancel the bonus, you can send an official appeal in which you express disagreement with certain points (this can strengthen the employee’s position in further disputes).
Keep pay slips for the entire period of work, so that later you can prove the systematic payment of bonuses.

Dispute over recovery of bonus: how to behave as an employer

As the definition of the Sun shows, it is worth pointing out that the bonus is not obligatory and guaranteed.
Ustyushenko advises to distinguish between two types of bonuses: those that are included in the wage system (Article 129 of the Labor Code), and the so-called incentive bonuses, which are discussed in Art. 191 TK.
Ivanova recommends explaining in writing why the premium was paid (not paid, reduced), with references to the clauses of the local act. “As soon as you stop doing this, it will become easier for the employee to prove that the bonus refers to unconditional allowances,” warns Ivanova.
Ustyushenko warns against the idea of indicating an exact percentage or a fixed amount of the bonus, because such wording shows that the bonus is not given “for something” and is not tied to any employee indicators.
Reisman reminds that bonus rules must be detailed, they must be approved by order and handed over to employees against signature.
Ustyushenko calls for compliance with the rules of their own local regulations. “If a bonus is awarded, for example, on the basis of a checklist, a memo from the immediate supervisor and an order from the director, there must be such documents,” she insists. And if the rules cannot be followed because they are cumbersome, they need to be changed, the lawyer concludes.

*name and surname have been changed by the editors

Evgenia Efimenko