Ah no nothing like that. And 10 is just a pithy way to say that they want people to stay a long time if they're good. And they did that by, each year, if they wanted you out, you got a very small bonus. If they wanted you to stay, you got a very large bonus. That's all I meant - they retain you by giving you many dollars via payroll.

It's how it works in the trading world. The base is decently competitive (for devs anyway) but the bonus is based on trading results and functions similarly (from an incentives/alignment and retention perspective) for how stock works for other companies.

I think the point is that salary + bonus = your real salary, but they give much if it in the form of a bonus so they can more easily choose to give your overall "salary" a cut.

A trading shop can afford to give bigger bonuses to a smaller set of staff, not everyone who is still cutting teeth.

Scaling the size of refresh grants based on time in service is another effective strategy, and often less expensive to the company.