One common scheme sets the hourly rate on paper below what the job actually pays, computes straight-time and overtime pay against that lower figure, and then makes up the rest of the promised weekly sum by calling the remainder a “bonus.” Nothing about that remainder resembles a bonus in substance — it is not paid for extra effort, as a reward for loyal service, or as a gift. It is simply the leftover arithmetic needed to reach the amount the employee was always going to be paid for the week. § 778.502(a) treats the word “bonus” as improperly applied whenever it designates a portion of regular wages the employee is already entitled to receive under the regular wage contract.

The arithmetic exposes the scheme on its own terms. Because the “bonus” exists only to bridge the gap between the arbitrary low rate and the amount actually guaranteed, it does not hold steady the way a real bonus would — it shrinks as hours climb, since more hours computed at the low rate closes more of the gap, and it can vanish entirely once the hours worked are high enough to reach the guaranteed sum through the low rate alone. A payment that behaves that way is not being paid in recognition of anything the employee did that week; it is a function of the guaranteed total and the hours worked, which is exactly what the regular rate is supposed to capture in the first place.

Some employers try to patch the problem by computing overtime on the “bonus” separately — dividing it by the hours worked (prorating it) to find an average hourly increase, then paying half that rate for the overtime hours, the way a true bonus’s contribution to the regular rate would be prorated. That does not fix anything, because there was never a separate bonus to prorate. The whole guaranteed sum has to be divided by the hours actually worked that week to find the real regular rate, and overtime owed on that rate. The general rule in § 778.502(e) covers the scheme regardless of the label: wherever an employee is guaranteed a fixed or determinable sum as wages for the week, no part of that sum is a true bonus, and the bonus-proration rules do not apply to it. The same logic reaches piece-rate work dressed up the same way — an arbitrary hourly rate assigned with a promise to make up the difference if piece-rate earnings would have been higher is still piece-rate pay, and the regular rate is still piece-rate earnings divided by hours worked.