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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Employee Benefits > Publications > Factsheets

What types of nonproduction bonuses are available to workers?

The National Compensation Survey (NCS) program publishes nonproduction bonuses, which are cash payments made to employees that are not directly related by any formula to individual employee productivity. The Employment Cost Index (ECI) includes nonproduction bonuses in total benefits, the Employer Cost for Employee Compensation (ECEC) provides the dollar amount for nonproduction bonuses per hour worked and the NCS Benefits produces data on the percent of access to nonproduction bonuses.⁽¹⁾

Access to nonproduction bonuses includes the following bonus types: employee incentive awards (such as hiring, referral, and retention bonuses), performance-based awards (cash profit sharing, end-of-year, holiday, and management incentive bonuses), recognition awards (attendance, employee recognitions, longevity, safety, and suggestion bonuses), union related (contract signing and lump sum bonuses), and other bonuses (in lieu of benefit payments and birthday and retirement bonuses).

In March 2025, 50 percent of private industry and 38 percent of state and local government workers had access to nonproduction bonuses. Thirteen percent of private industry workers and 2 percent of state and local government workers had access to end-of-year bonuses. Five percent of private industry and 21 percent of state and local government workers had access to payment in lieu of benefit bonuses. Three percent of private industry and 8 percent of state and local government had access to longevity bonuses. (See chart 1.)

Chart 1 data table

Table 1. Percent of workers with access to nonproduction bonuses by ownership, March 2025
Nonproduction bonuses	Private industry	State and local government
All nonproduction bonuses	50%	38%
End-of-year bonus	13%	2%
Longevity bonus	3%	8%
Payment in lieu of benefits bonus	5%	21%
Employee incentive awards	12%	3%
Hiring bonus	4%	1%
Performance-based awards	29%	3%
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey

Seventy-three percent of workers in the financial activities industry and 28 percent of workers in the leisure and hospitality industry had access to nonproduction bonuses. Chart 2 illustrates the percent of workers with access to nonproduction bonuses among private industries in March 2025.

Chart 2 data table

Chart 2. Percent of private industry workers with access to nonproduction bonuses by industry group, March 2025
Industry	Access
Information	75%
Financial activities	73%
Manufacturing	65%
Professional and business services	54%
All industries	50%
Construction	53%
Education and health services	49%
Trade, transportation, and utilities	46%
Leisure and hospitality	28%
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey

Estimates from the Employer Cost for Employee Compensation (ECEC) and Employee Benefits in the United States can be combined to approximate the employer costs for workers with access to nonproduction bonuses.⁽²⁾ From March 2025 in the ECEC, private industry workers were paid $1.31 per hour of work for nonproduction bonuses, which accounted for 2.9 percent of their total compensation. By dividing the hourly cost by 50 percent of private industry workers with access to nonproduction bonuses, an employer cost of $2.62 per hour worked can be estimated for private industry workers who have access to nonproduction bonuses. (See chart 3.)

Chart 3 data table

Chart 3. Estimated employer costs for workers with access to nonproduction bonuses by industry group, private industry workers, March 2025
Industry	Cost
Financial activities	$5.52
Information	$4.84
Professional and business services	$4.69
Construction	$2.94
All industries	$2.62
Manufacturing	$2.34
Education and health services	$1.88
Trade, transportation, and utilities	$1.39
Leisure and hospitality	$0.36
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey

Thirty-seven percent of workers in service occupations and 58 percent of management, professional and related occupations had access to nonproduction bonuses. (See chart 4.)

Chart 4 data table

Chart 4. Percent of private industry workers with access to nonproduction bonuses by occupational group, March 2025
Occupational group	Access
Service	37%
Sales and office	50%
Production, transportation, and material moving	50%
All workers	50%
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance	52%
Management, professional and related	58%
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey

Among different types of nonproduction bonuses, 6 percent of all private industry workers had access to cash profit-sharing bonuses. Among occupational groups, 7 percent of sales and office and 2 percent of service occupations had access to cash profit-sharing bonuses. Thirteen percent of all workers, 6 percent of service and 19 percent of management, professional and related occupations had access to end-of-year bonuses. Ten percent of all workers, 6 percent of management, professional and related and 15 percent of natural resources, construction, and maintenance had access to holiday bonuses. Ten percent of all workers, 11 percent of service occupations and 9 percent of production, transportation and material moving occupations had access to referral bonuses.⁽³⁾ (See chart 5.)

Chart 5 data table

Table 5. Percent of private industry workers with access to nonproduction bonuses by occupational group, March 2025
Occupational group	Cash profit-sharing bonus	End-of-year bonus	Holiday bonus	Referral bonus
All workers	6%	13%	10%	10%
Management, professional and related	7%	19%	6%	11%
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance	6%	15%	15%	7%
Production, transportation, and material moving	8%	9%	13%	9%
Sales and office	7%	13%	12%	8%
Service	2%	6%	11%	11%
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey

More information

Estimates on the cost, coverage, and provisions of employer–sponsored benefit plans from 2010 to the present are available through the XLSX dataset and public database. Benefit estimates are not a time series and users are advised to consider changes in survey design, survey scope, estimation methods, weighting, and sample rotation when analyzing the data. Join the BLS Mailing Lists to receive notification of the latest data releases.

The glossary of employee benefit terms provides definitions for plans, provisions, coverage, and related terms. The Employee Benefits Handbook of Methods provides information on the survey design, calculations, weighting, and imputation methods used to produce compensation estimates. The calculation section includes information on the measures of reliability available for each estimate. Additional information on Employee Benefits can be found in the EBS Publications, Monthly Labor Review, and the questions and answers page.

END NOTES

⁽¹⁾ The Pay Measure Comparison allows for comparison across the 12 BLS surveys or programs that provide information on pay and benefits.

⁽²⁾ For more information on utilizing both Benefits and ECEC data, see the Benefit Costs Concepts and Limitations of the ECEC Measurement.

⁽³⁾ Other nonproduction bonuses are payments made to employees for a designated occasion or based on a specified circumstance, such as a birthday bonus or final year’s pay for providing one year’s irrevocable notice of retirement.