I will always take a high salary over any kind of bonus structure/program. I worked for a big aerospace company and earned what I considered to be a pretty mediocre salary but we had a profit sharing program that was about 4% of your annual salary, plus we frequently received spot awards and a decent holiday bonus (one year I got a bonus that was worth approximately 2 paychecks). It was nice but it always felt inconsistent and unpredictable, and then one year they basically stopped all of these programs and also restructured our benefits programs such that they were contributing far less to our health insurance premiums AND they stopped paying into our pension fund (yes, we had a pension!). At that point I calculated my total compensation was actually significantly less than it had been in years past and there was no reason for me to stay. I found another job with a 50% bump in pay and since then I have only accepted positions where I could count on a consistently high salary or rate (if I do a 1099 kind of project).