I've experienced this as well and it's a sign of a really bad amanger (IME). No manager should give you any resistance to giving away free money from the compa

I've experienced this as well and it's a sign of a really bad amanger (IME). No manager should give you any resistance to giving away free money from the company to their team. If they ever do you know where their loyalties lie: with their management chain and producing the appearance of efficacy. A manager should be fighting to give the team any on-call pay they're due. Related side story: annual bonuses were (and maybe still are) calculated based on salary, level (ie target percentage) and ratings. It quickly becomes known what the base rate is so you can calculate everything. After this, your manager has a pool of extra money and a bunch of sliders for their reports. From that pool of extra money, they can distribute it evenly, weight it towards particular people, etc. They can even take money away in this process from some people to give it to other people. But because the formulae are all straightforward, this should be obvious. I have seen: - Managers take away money from some people to give it to their favorites; - Give all the extra money to one person; and - (This is the crazy one) Not give all the money away. That is to say they'd rather not give away this free money and return it to the company. I've literally seen this happen. That's why I mention it: any sign of a manager not giving their team everything they can should be a massive red flag.