It’s been eight years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers sparked a global financial crisis and generous bonuses are back with £44.3 billion ($58.6 billion) paid out in the last financial year in the UK.
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The biggest contributor to this figure was the financial services sector which accounted for £13.9bn.
The average bonus per employee at a general economy level for the 2016 financial year reached nearly £1,600, which is an increase of 2.4%.
Commenting on the findings, ONS statistician Nick Palmer said: ‘The total of over £44 billion of bonuses represents the first time that the figure has surpassed the previous record set in 2008, when it was £42.5 billion. For the rest of the economy, payments increased by 5.4% to reach £30.4 billion. In the public sector, they made up just 0.3 per cent.
Still, it’s not exactly doom and gloom for the industry with the average bonus per employee in the finance and insurance industry standing at £13,400 – by a long margin the biggest overall.
However, the finance and insurance industry saw bonuses rise by just 2.2% during the past year compared to 5.4% for the rest of the economy and 9% for the information and communication industry.
At the end of August, Woodford Investment Management said it would scrap bonuses and pay staff, including fund managers, a flat salary.
The ONS noted that bonuses often form a significant part of the total pay of private sector workers, who on average receive lower regular pay than people in the public sector.
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Total bonus payments in the private sector increased by 4.8% to £43.7 billion in the financial year ending 2016.
