How's this possible?

This one is going to be difficult to explain: Terri Shaw, the former head of Federal Student Aid within the Dept of Education, has taken home over $250,000 in "bonus'" the past 4 years! That's right, a government employee granted a bonus. And we're just not talking about a nominal "atta boy" bonus....these are significant bonus structures. Terri has averaged over $60k per year in bonus the past four years (all this in addition to her $144k per year salary....which was bumped up to $165k per year last year).

We understand the nature of a bonus: to reward an employee for work that was done. And we understand that the government needs to be creative in attracting and retaining talented people to accomplish tasks that they otherwise would be paid significantly more in the private sector. But to hand out over $250k in bonus for the last four years? It just seems a little excessive to us. Leaders within the government do not assume the roles they do for salary and bonus packages. They do so for their passion of a public policy issue/topic. They do so to fulfill a need to serve the public. Government leaders are compensated to operated in a low risk environment. A bonus is a return for risks taken in a decisioning environment. Terri Shaw did not operate in a high risk environment.