The law does not require or address bonuses, since employers are free to offer them or not--and if they offer them, to set the criteria therefore.. Bonuses rather are governed by contract or agreement--the contract or agreement (even if only an oral, or unwritten, one) pursuant to which the employee is working. If under the terms of the bonus, the employee has to be employed as of the payment of the bonus to receive it, for example, then the employee would lose the bonus if he leaves employment prior to bonus payment. Therefore, there is no general answer to this question: it depends entirely on the terms of and policy behind the bonus.