you can hear news of some low-level worker being arrested for accepting payments for illegal transactions This does happen, but it might be worth distinguishin

you can hear news of some low-level worker being arrested for accepting payments for illegal transactions This does happen, but it might be worth distinguishing two kinds of low-level bribery: 1) clerks can be bribed to look the other way on something, or even assist in it, usually "out-of-band" when you've meet them elsewhere and arranged a plan; or 2) clerks must be bribed by slipping them some cash to get legal things done. The U.S. has almost none of #2: if you legitimately have business with a government office, you can just follow the official rules, file your paperwork, and it'll get processed in line. In some countries you're expected to slip in a $20 with the paperwork, or it will never get processed, while doing so in the U.S would probably either not help, or actually delay your paperwork as the clerk figures out what additional paperwork they need to file about this unexpected cash. It's completely unexpected and usually unwelcome to do that kind of "cold" bribe, where you just slip someone you've never met some money; they might even suspect you of being a cop. Both are bad, but in somewhat different ways; #2 is particularly influential on corruption perceptions, because regular people run into it when doing mundane things.