I mean just think about it. You write some critical piece of Amazon S3, generates massive value for the company. Amazon knows they cant lose you, how are they not paying you a ton of money? Individual employees can get into situations where they have massive bargaining power over large corporations. Your average or even regular top performer is not getting this, but people definitely are.
The bonus structure works like this.
1.) You provide massive value, maybe move the needle on the bottom line
2.) Someone way high up who probably doesnt even know you wants to know whos responsible.
3.) He tells HR, give that guy an extra million and let me meet him
I've seen bonuses like this at Amazon. You forgot the detail where some clown who has been taking credit with no technical understanding of the project gets the bonus while the people who delivered the actual value are ignored.
The bonus structure works like this.
1.) You provide massive value, maybe move the needle on the bottom line
2.) Someone way high up who probably doesnt even know you wants to know whos responsible.
3.) He tells HR, give that guy an extra million and let me meet him