Long vesting periods, and the fact that, well, what you get at the end is an investment in your employer. So it's like getting money, except you don't get it fo

Long vesting periods, and the fact that, well, what you get at the end is an investment in your employer. So it's like getting money, except you don't get it for a few years, and someone else invests it for you. As far as 10k bonus vs. 5k raise, sure: if you're being offered 10k now versus 5k over the next year, and you expect to receive another 10k next year in lieu of the same 5k, then you're coming out ahead. But the case I'm talking about is when you're getting a compensation offer including a bonus, in which case you're choosing between 5k over the next year versus 10k in a year (maybe). A signing bonus of some sort, where you're receiving an immediate guaranteed payoff (or even a guaranteed payoff at some point in the future), is a completely different beast than a performance bonus as part of a compensation package.