- In 2018, the average bonus for a full-time worker in the UK was £2,242
- The average incentive pay for a full-time working male in the UK is twice that of a female: £2,613 vs £1,158
- Full-time workers in London on average earn an annual bonus 3 times the national average: the average annual incentive pay in London is £6,912
- The average private sector (full-time worker) bonus in 2018 was £2,441, this has seen year-on-year growth since 2015, however, is still substantially less than incentive pay before the 2008 recession: in 2008 the average private sector bonus pay was £3,038
- Full-time earners between the ages of 40-49 earn the largest bonuses, over twice that of UK earners between the ages of 22-29: £2,879 vs £,1234
How much incentive pay do full-time workers in the UK receive each year? Research collated from Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment breaks down the state of UK incentive pay in 2018 based on a collection of Office For National Statistics datasets.
A study into bonus pay in the UK has investigated which full-time workers are most likely to earn the highest bonuses with the results suggesting that the highest amount of incentive pay comes from male workers in the capital during the latter stages of their career.
Regional differences in bonus pay
The regional difference within the UK for incentive pay is striking where a full-time private sector worker in London receives on average over three times the national average:
Region |
Average Bonus |
Jobs in the UK |
|
London |
£6,912 |
3,339,000 |
|
South East |
£2,213 |
3,064,000 |
|
East |
£1,772 |
1,914,000 |
|
North West |
£1,627 |
2,353,000 |
|
Scotland |
£1,567 |
1,992,000 |
|
West Midlands |
£1,566 |
1,870,000 |
|
South West |
£1,489 |
1,813,000 |
|
Yorkshire and The Humber |
£1,450 |
1,802,000 |
|
East Midlands |
£1,424 |
1,515,000 |
|
Wales |
£1,101 |
971,000 |
The gender-pay gap
The gender pay gap is a big discussion point in the UK today and it looks to be just as much reflected in bonuses as it does in gross annual income. In 2018 the average full-time working male took home £2,613 in incentive pay, whereas the average female took home £1,158.
When broken down by both age and gender, the data points to the cause of the disparity; males between 40-59 tend to earn around twice as much incentive pay as females, taking home an average of around £3500 per year:
|
|
Average Incentive Pay |
|
|
Age Group |
Male |
Female |
Male - Female Variance |
|
22-29 |
£1,503 |
£885 |
+£618 |
|
30-39 |
£2,939 |
£1,526 |
+£1413 |
|
40-49 |
£3,703 |
£1,552 |
+£2151 |
|
50-59 |
£3,361 |
£1,195 |
+£2166 |
|
60+ |
£1,563 |
£633 |
+£930 |
|
All |
£2,613 |
£1,158 |
+£1,455 |
Which job types earn the highest bonuses?
Aaron Wallis has also collated data from the ONS on bonus pay by job-type, defined by two-digit SOC code:
Occupation |
Average Bonus |
Jobs in the UK |
|
Corporate managers and directors |
£7,878 |
1,988,000 |
|
Business, media and public service professionals |
£2,271 |
1,220,000 |
|
Science, research, engineering and technology professionals |
£2,197 |
1,119,000 |
|
Skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades |
£946 |
861,000 |
|
Customer service occupations |
£866 |
464,000 |
|
Skilled construction and building trades |
£689 |
280,000 |
|
Sales occupations |
£616 |
1,313,000 |
|
Administrative occupations |
£582 |
2,040,000 |
|
Process, plant and machine operatives |
£531 |
1,356,000 |
|
Leisure, travel and related personal service occupations |
£519 |
331,000 |
|
Transport and mobile machine drivers and operatives |
£453 |
704,000 |
|
Secretarial and related occupations |
£415 |
530,000 |
|
Elementary trades and related occupations |
£368 |
289,000 |
|
Elementary administration and service occupations |
£232 |
1,992,000 |
|
Health professionals |
£180 |
1,273,000 |
|
Caring personal service occupations |
£37 |
1,721,000 |
Corporate managers and directors take home the highest average annual bonus, with just under £8000. After this, professional services under business, media, public service and science tend to do well, averaging just over £2000 a year in incentive pay.
Private sector bonuses over the last 15 years
Using ONS datasets over the last 15 years, research from Aaron Wallis suggests that incentive pay in the private sector has still not completely recovered following the 2008 recession:
For the full results of the study, with more breakdowns into bonus pay please visit: https://www.aaronwallis.co.uk/news/bonus-pay-in-2018.aspx
Rob Scott, Managing Director at Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment said: “Particularly in private sector roles like sales or recruitment, incentive pay forms a key part of workers annual income and it’s important for both employers and workers to make sure they’re keeping up with the trends of bonus pay in the market.
Encouragingly, our research suggests that bonus pay is on the rise with average private sector bonuses seeing consistent growth since 2015, however, this is still a long way off the bonuses which UK workers were receiving before 2009.”