I think most people know that a bonus is a much worse deal for most people who aren't VP and above level. A salary increase locks you in for the next year but the bonus can be taken away.
Don’t get me wrong: I know that in general a bonus is probably cheaper than an actual wage increase for the company, but there’s a fairly large group where it can legitimately be worth more to someone.
(Please no one respond with “poor people waste the bonus” it’s not helpful and also largely not true)
If you need your car to get to your job, then if it needs immediate repairs you have no choice but to get the money for a mechanic immediately.
If you’re on a low or minimum wage there is not any kind of safety buffer for you, and banks won’t lend to you (collectively low income people are higher risk of default so it’s easiest for banks to just say no than do it case by case).
The problem is that once you have needed a payday loan once, you’re trapped: if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, then once they take their cut you don’t have enough money to pay the rent, so you need a loan ...
And so from a single loan they now have a permanent source of income, and it’s a higher interest rate than any other (10-20% per week is “reasonable”)
In principle I don’t have a problem with the concept of a payday loan (it’s essentially a secured credit), but something about that industry drives them to fee gouge and ruin people’s lives.
Salary increases can also decrease, but you get something VS a bonus which could be 0 - some percentage of your base salary in some cases.