Bonuses rise in 2024, but fewer employees receive them

Biggest increase in bonuses in U.S. reported in white-collar industries, report finds

Bonuses rise in 2024, but fewer employees receive them

Year-end bonuses went up slightly in 2024, while the number of employees who received them declined, according to a new report from Gusto.

The report found that December bonuses in 2024 reached $2,503, approximately two per cent higher than the $2,447 in the same month a year prior.

On the other hand, the share of workers who received a bonus declined in 2024 by almost two per cent compared to 2023, according to the report, which looked at anonymised payroll data from more than 400,000 businesses in the United States.

"This indicates that while some employers are continuing to use bonuses as a tool to keep their top performers engaged, they may not be paying bonuses to the entire staff, as we sometimes saw during the peak of the hiring market in 2021 and 2022," it read.

Offered bonuses by sector

According to the report, most sectors in the US offered a higher average bonus in 2024, with Communications and Real Estate logging a 22% and a 10% increase, respectively.

"There were notable increases in several white-collar industries, including Communications (up 22%), Technology (up 7%), and Professional Services (up 6%)," the report read.

"Increases in end-of-year bonuses are additional evidence we may see more investments in these industries in the form of wage growth as we head into the new year."

On the other hand, four sectors recorded a drop in average bonuses offered, with Personal Services and Transportation and Warehousing logging the biggest declines at 10%.

[Declines] in bonuses in personal service industries indicate that wage growth for service workers may be cooling after years of significant wage growth as they reopened post-pandemic.

Employees getting bonuses

Meanwhile, the report also found that the share of workers who received a bonus in 2024 went down by two per cent, with the biggest drop recorded in Healthcare and Social Assistance (-8%).

The biggest increase in the share of workers who got a bonus, on the other hand, was logged in non-profits and associations, with an 11% hike.