Warning: SWIFT sign on bonuses are a scam

You're getting confused by the word "bonus" like a lot of other people.

There are two distinct types of "bonuses". One is discretionary. That's something like a Xmas bonus that is at the discretion of the employer.

The second is non-discretionary. These are not even close to the same thing. Non-discretionary "bonuses" are called that because they aren't at the discretion of the employer. They are considered part of your regular pay for all legal purposes. A classic example of this is commission paid to salespeople. Let's say you sell something (jewelry, cars, it doesn't matter). You're pay is defined as minimum wage paid hourly plus 5% of all sales you make paid out monthly in the form of a bonus. In that example, you're real pay might be $80,000 per year. You're not actually making minimum wage. You're employer couldn't just decide NOT to pay you your monthly bonus. It's a documented part of your pay.

The law clearly states that a "bonus" that is calculated by a specific set of guidelines like this is a on-discretionary bonus. In Swift's case it's pretty straightforward. My pay was $0.48 per mile. $0.43 cents per mile was paid weekly. The remaining $0.05 per mile was to be paid out quarterly. Just because they use the word "bonus" to describe that portion of a drivers pay doesn't mean they aren't obligated to pay it.

I get that some of you have a misconception about what the word bonus means. That's fine. What's not okay is for you to come onto a forum and proclaim that your misconception is fact when it would only take you a few seconds of google searching to realize that it's just that, a misconception. I've already explained this multiple times in this thread but I'm posting it again since people seem to only read the last few posts before stating the same flawed thing time and again.