Employee benefits survey reveals bonuses

With city bank chiefs' six- or even seven-figure bonuses in the spotlight, it is easy to overlook the fact that most employees in bonus schemes receive only modest sums each year.

While at board level, bonus payments can be equivalent to a substantial proportion of someone's basic salary (or even a multiple of it in a few cases), among middle and junior managers bonuses rarely account for more than a fraction of total take-home pay.

The CELRE Salary Survey of Employee Benefits and Additional Payments for 2009, based on data collected from 800 organisations and covering 120,264 employees, can now reveal both the extent and size of bonus payments across the UK economy.

Relaunched for 2009, the report includes 

• Data on 45,081 core business function staff and managers in 210 organisations.
• Data on 75,183 computer staff and managers in 590 organisations.
• Analysis of bonus and commission payments, company cars and car allowances for core business and IT staff, by industry group, function and region.
• Rigorous analysis of recruitment and retention data, employment conditions, employee benefits, pay reviews and training/study leave.
• Detailed data for IT on contract staff, shift working, standby and call-out payments.

Key findings

The survey findings cover a range of core business functions (for example, HR, finance and accounts staff, and sales and marketing professionals), engineers, computer staff and some specialist groups such as actuaries.

They show that among non-IT staff, some 74% of managers and 58.6% of non-managerial staff get bonuses of some kind, while in IT the proportions are 64.9% and 42% respectively.

At board level, directors earn on average a bonus that is just over one-third (36.6%) the size of their basic salary. In some industries, however, the average can rise as high as 50%.

Below board level, these figures quickly decline, with function heads earning an average bonus equivalent to 20.5% of salary while section managers get 14.6%. For non-managerial staff, bonuses typically average less than 10% of basic salary (see table 1 and chart 1).

The CELRE survey also shows the different approaches to bonus calculation used in different industries.

Across all industries bonuses tend to be based on both company and individual performance.

But while 60.4% of non-manufacturing companies base bonuses on company performance alone and just 0.4% use individual performance, among IT services firms just 5.8% base bonuses on company performance alone and 26.8% base them on individual performance.

The report also includes a wealth of data on other aspects of reward. Although bonuses have been in the headlines in recent weeks, they are just one aspect of the employee benefits and additional payments used by employers to recruit, retain and reward staff.

CELRE's 2009 survey includes data on a wide range of provision, including pension schemes, health-related benefits, share schemes, car allowances, and training, as well as shift, standby and call-out payments.

Survey of Employee Benefits and Additional Payments 2009. Prices from £495. Call 020 8652 4653 to order, citing ref CW01.