I work as a regional support rep for a franchise company. When assisting on the setup of a new franchise location, I get $1,000 as a bonus. As an adult, you quickly realize how little $1,000 is, especially in today's market….
Now when I'm working a setup, I sometimes have to fly out of state to the location. At minimum, the setup is required 2 weeks, a total of usually 12-14 days away from home.
Breaking out the math for my normal compensation after tax per hour, plus the bonus and minus the tax on that bonus, and what I'm averaging in hours worked on a setup, which is usually around 105-110 hours. It only comes out to around an additional $5.50 and change more per hour that I'm getting.
And in doing so, counting hours awake at home with family, I'm giving up roughly 83 hours when I break out the math. And remember, I'm taxed on that bonus too. So the math comes to about $9-10 an hour I'm given to be away from home.
When any company gives you a bonus incentive for something like this….it's always important to run the numbers to see what you're REALLY making.