Same for the cash bonuses. All the workers might underperform and never see the bonus.

Here's where software people find "loopholes" like they're looking for edge case bugs in code.

Suppose Tata pulls exactly what you describe. Do you think that stands a half a chance in hell of standing up to scrutiny by DoL?

That's interesting. So the laws aren't being taken literally?

They are generally not treated as executable code written in English, but rather are interpreted taking into account the facts and circumstances.

If Tata has hundreds of employees, all making $80K and a $50K bonus, none earning the bonus due to poor individual performance, but all being retained by the company and sent on new client engagements (presumably due to acceptable performance).

In finance, this is often referred to as substance over form, but the same concept applies in other areas of civil law as well.