As I understand it, signing bonuses started out as upfront payments that would be negotiated to compensate top executives for taking the risk of leaving their current job.

Using this for warehouse workers sounds like little more than a tool for recruiters to mislead people before they’ve read the terms of the contract.

Why not call it a “one year retention bonus”?

Except after taking that risk, if the exec leaves within a period, they have to return that bonus. So for the exec as well, it’s both inducement and retention.

Where I work a signing bonus is paid with the first paycheck and no contingency.

We also have another kind of bonus that's paid after a year and we don't call it a signing bonus.

In my industry signing bonuses are paid with the first paycheck but there is a clawback if you voluntarily leave before a year. There's no clawback if they fire you, though.

Clawbacks are effectively bad debt when you’re talking about this type of worker/income bracket. While the language is always put in writing, no employer I’ve worked for would actually attempt a clawback as it’s not worth the bad press/word of mouth when you pull $3000 out of their checking account 2 days before their rent is due.

You get a signing bonus when you sign, hence the name. I'd consider it a massive red flag if a company bucked the trend and made it contingent.

but you get the signing bonus in advance, and if the company fires you (rather than you quitting), they need to do the work to collect it back, no?

* talking of white collar jobs I have seen

And not just that, usually they can only get it back if you're fired with cause.