I have run a few small companies (up to 30 employees/contractors), and FWIW my experience doesn't match your assumptions. At the end of a year you've made a lim

I have run a few small companies (up to 30 employees/contractors), and FWIW my experience doesn't match your assumptions. At the end of a year you've made a limited amount of profit and you want to distribute part of it to the personal. The most efficient way I found is to give 80% to the few top performers - the people who work 100+ hour work weeks or have more connections (sales) or are smarter (IT). The others you can easily replace plus bonuses don't seem to increase much the productivity of the averagely lazy. Surely this is just another anecdote.