British workers were handed a record £46.4 billion in bonuses last year partly fuelled by a rise in payments to City workers, official figures out today reveal.
The financial and insurance industry was the sector which dished out the most in bonuses, paying out £15bn – up nearly 10 per cent on the previous year.
But the payments increased across the board with even public sector workers seeing their pay packets bolstered by the one-off cheques.
Bankers and other workers in the lucrative financial and insurance industry received the biggest increase in their yearly bonuses.
Figures released by the Office for national Statistics today show that bonus payments have hit £46.4billion – the highest since records began in 2001
On average they saw payments of just under £14,770 on 2016/17 – a rise of around £1,560 (11.8 per cent) on the year before.
Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre – a think-tank which monitors high pay – told the Mail Online many people will be shocked that while they are struggling to make ends meet others are being handed bumper bonuses.
He said: ‘I think people will be pretty startled to see that in an economy that for most of us is still pretty flat and when most of us are not experiencing pay rises, that nonetheless somehow bonuses are still on offer to some people.
‘It is hard to connect that sort of sizeof bonus and reward with the state of the economy.
‘It seems to be a prize on offer to a very small section of people.’
Bankers in the financial services sector in the City of London get some of the biggest bonuses – with the average worker getting a staggering £15,000 last year, the ONS figures reveal
The ONS figures showed that overall payments soared by 6.5 per cent from £44.3bn in 2015/16 to £46.4bn last year – the highest since records began in 2001.
The overwhelming bulk of the payments were handed out to private sector workers, but the figures show a steep rise in the cash given to public sector workers too.
Bonuses handed out to public sector workers – excluding those in the financial services industry – shot up nearly 30 per cent last year to £431million.
Across the whole economy average bonus payments per employee increased to just over £1,600 in 2016/17 – more than five per cent higher than the year before.
Mining and quarrying was the industry with the second highest average bonus per employee of slightly over £6,520.
Health and social care workers are least likely to get a bonus, with the average payment close to zero, the figures showed.