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How Long Can a Company Hold Off on Paying Raises, Bonuses

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  • 08-04-2015, 12:51 PM
    kschneiderstl
    How Long Can a Company Hold Off on Paying Raises, Bonuses
    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Missouri

    I work for a national chain of movie theatres. They are based in California. I live in Missouri. The company ostensibly gives out annual raises and year-end bonuses for full time management in February of each year. This year the raises did not come until the end of July (We did get retro pay for the period between February and July). It is now August 2015 and the 2014 year-end bonus has yet to come.
    Both the raise and the year-end bonus are determined by the performance of each specific location in the previous year, factoring in such variables as payroll and COGS (both things my management team can control). Therefore I would consider the bonus merit-based. Some things I have read indicate that if the bonus is merit-based, it is not discretionary. However, I was only given verbal information about raises and bonuses. My employment contract merely specifies my starting base salary. So I'm not sure what category my bonus falls into, legally.
    What raises a red flag about this procedure is that if any manager would have quit between February and July of 2015, they would forfeit four months of retro pay. If any manager were to quit any time in the first 8 months of 2015 (or longer, because we still have no idea when the 2014 bonus is coming) they would forfeit their bonus AND possibly months of retro pay. I think the company is dragging their heels on purpose to avoid paying this money. Is this legal?
  • 08-04-2015, 01:29 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: How Long Can a Company Hold Off on Paying Raises, Bonuses
    Unless there is a contract that states that you must receive a raise, and that it must commence on a particular date, it's up to your employer whether or not to give you a raise and when to make any raise effective. If all your contract guarantees you is your base starting salary, then that's all your employer is obligated to pay you.
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