I'm quite sure that the bonus at fog creek is not based on performance... It is based on profit (he does say that he has a profit sharing plan) but joel is against giving bonuses as incentive...
see http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000070.html
Compared to the situation at my old company where salary was determined by how well you negociated, I'm quite sure I prefer joel's version. And when reading the ladder http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/ladder.html, it's clear enough so that any disagreement are probably going to be minor (since he's using the average of skill and scope in a lot of cases a one point difference in the skill or scope won't make any difference to the level)
Compared to the situation at my old company where salary was determined by how well you negociated, I'm quite sure I prefer joel's version. And when reading the ladder http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/ladder.html, it's clear enough so that any disagreement are probably going to be minor (since he's using the average of skill and scope in a lot of cases a one point difference in the skill or scope won't make any difference to the level)