In the private sector, those big bonuses are "real money".  That is, the employees output has resulted in increased sales and/or profit for the company  they work for.  It's not "you deserve more" money.  This increased output/increased profit motivation that is ingrained in the private sector is largely lost on career government employees.   In the private sector, increased output is not measured in number of seminars and training sessions completed, but by increased measurable units of production.  Personally i would be in favor of 18% raises for the county employees if their productivity had increased enough to allow an 18% reduction in the number of employees needed to provide the same services.