I can answer the latter: it’s much easier to withhold bonuses, legally. This is why many companies will shift a percentage of compensation for non-executives fr

I can answer the latter: it’s much easier to withhold bonuses, legally. This is why many companies will shift a percentage of compensation for non-executives from salaries to bonuses: it makes it much easier to claw that money back during down times. The unspoken agreement is that that clawback will only be triggered when the other alternative is layoffs.