While the end-of-year cash bonus is disappearing in the United States, most Latin American countries require employers to pay their workers a holiday-time bonus. Labor experts say that this enables employers to appear bighearted at Christmas while keeping wages low throughout the year. The lump sum bonuses, with amounts often negotiated by unions, boost retail sales in December but have also resulted in higher numbers of assaults on cash-carrying employees.
See "South of the Border, the Christmas Bonus Is Sacred", Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times, December 20, 2005