1. I wasn't clear: the employer's getting the commitment itself for free. The labor is still being paid at the labor rate. 2. When I wrote the objection, I was

1. I wasn't clear: the employer's getting the commitment itself for free. The labor is still being paid at the labor rate. 2. When I wrote the objection, I was more thinking about the retention of established employees: it's relatively common in my industry to offer a bonus of some kind in exchange for your experienced employee committing to not leave in the next, say, two years. In that context, replacing the immediate bonus with a promised raise / promised bonus is problematic in that it benefits the employer (employee is more motivated to stay), while not restricting the employer (the employer can still lay off the employee at any time, having spent nothing). In contrast, most of the time the retention bonuses are only forfeit if the employee quits or is fired with cause, so if the employer has given an employee such a bonus it serves as a level of commitment to not lay off the employee, because they've already paid extra to retain them.