Thelander PC Digest: October 2022

How do Bonuses Impact the Total Cash Engineering Roles Receive for Compensation?

We’ve already looked at how receiving a bonus impacts the total cash that one is compensated for C-suite and VPs in administrative and technical roles. This month, we’re taking a look at how this impacts directors and managers in engineering roles.

For some engineering professionals, their total cash compensation is just their base salary, while others also receive a bonus as well. This doesn’t necessarily mean that those with bonuses get paid more. Those without bonuses might have a higher base salary to make up for the difference. So which is it? Let’s dive in! 

For engineering directors at companies that raised less than $50 million in total financing, there was less of a difference in median total cash between those who received a bonus or those who did not. However, there was a significant difference at companies with $50 million or more in total financing.

We looked at engineering managers and lead/principal engineers and found that those that received a bonus, overall made more in total cash at all financing levels.

Key Takeaway:

• The less than $50 million in total financing level had a larger difference between those who received a bonus or not for all position types examined.
• The percentage of those who received bonuses was lower for engineering managers than for engineering directors.

We’ve now launched our Year-End Survey which will run until the end of the year. It examines salary increases, bonuses, option pool percentages and more. It will be particularly valuable this year, as companies are struggling to understand if and how inflation will impact compensation. The survey is free to participate in and will take you less than 15 minutes to complete. All respondents will receive a free overview report and discounted pricing on premium subscriptions.