LONDON, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Bonuses paid to workers in Britain in the last year reached a record 46.4 billion pounds (62.5 billion U.S. dollars) the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Tuesday.
The figure was 6.5 percent higher than in 2016, surpassing the previous highest amount seen in the previous financial year, said ONS. It was also 11.3 percent higher than the peak in bonuses in the 2008 financial year, just prior to the economic downturn.
The statistics show financial and insurance activities industry paid the highest average bonus per employee, at slightly under 20,000 U.S. dollars, representing an average 25 percent of pay earned in the year.
The total amount of bonuses paid in the sector was 20.3 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 9.7 percent over 2016, but still below the 2008 peak of 25 billion U.S. dollars for this industry.
At the opposite end of the bonus scale the health and social work industry paid the lowest average bonus per employee at close to zero.
Bonuses as a percentage of total pay were 6.2 percent overall in the financial year ending 2017, a small increase on the previous year, but still below the financial year ending 2008 peak of 7.1 percent said ONS, adding that since 2001 bonuses for most industries have grown more in percentage terms than regular pay.
ONS said the annual growth in 2017 was driven by strong increases in bonus pay for the administrative and support service activities, increasing by 728 million U.S. dollars, a 25 percent rise. Bonuses in the construction sector rose by 27.5 percent while in arts, entertainment and recreation, bonuses have rocketed by almost 77 percent.
In the private sector bonuses contributed 7.4 percent, compared to the public sector were bonuses only contributed 0.5 percent to annual pay packets.
In an analysis of the so-called "bonus season" between December and March, more than 52 percent of all bonuses, totaling 33 billion U. S. dollars, were paid to staff during those months.
