For people with a target bonus, the typical target is 15% of base pay, and most people receive 79% of it, around $15,000, in The Aussie Corporate 2026 Salary Survey. 1 in 3 people receive no bonus at all.
How many people get a bonus?
1 in 3 people in the survey receive no bonus at all.
Bonuses come with tenure. 59% of people under one year in get nothing. By Years 10 to 15, that drops to 27%.
Only 11% of people in Banking and Finance go without an annual bonus. In Government it is 88%.
Which industries pay bonuses?
| Industry | Share with no annual bonus |
|---|---|
| Government | 88% |
| Health and Not-for-profit | 66% |
| Professional Services | 55% |
| Legal | 34% |
| Tech | 30% |
| Corporate | 25% |
| Banking and Finance | 11% |
Share of people with no annual bonus, by industry, from The Aussie Corporate 2026 Salary Survey. At the Big 4 it is 63%.
Government sits furthest from everyone else. 88% of government staff get no annual bonus, against 32% of everyone else in the survey.
Consulting firms charge clients a premium for top performers, and 55% of their employees have no bonus scheme at all. At the Big 4 it is 63%.
Resources sits at the other end. 87% of Resources staff get an annual bonus.
How much is a typical target bonus?
The typical target bonus is 15% of base pay.
Most people receive 79% of their target. In dollars, that is around $15,000.
Those figures cover people who have a target bonus. They leave out the 1 in 3 who receive no bonus at all.
How many people hit their bonus target?
7 in 10 people do not achieve their target bonus. This is what people with a target bonus were paid in 2025/2026:
- Paid nothing: 7%
- Under half of target: 21%
- Half to under target: 41%
- On target: 6%
- Above target: 25%
The biggest group lands between half and their full target. In the last year, 1 in 14 people received nothing at all despite having a target bonus.
A quarter went above target, and 6% landed exactly on it.
What should you ask about a bonus before you take a job?
These questions show what a bonus is likely to pay in practice:
- Is there a bonus scheme for this role, and what is the target as a share of base pay?
- How much of their target did people in this team receive last year?
- Is it paid on company results, team results, your own results or a mix?
- When is it paid, and do you have to be employed on that date to receive it?
- Is the bonus capped, or can it pay above target?
- If you start part way through the year, is your first bonus pro rata?
Is a bonus part of your salary?
A bonus is paid on top of base salary. The median salaries in our survey are base pay, without bonus, so they show the fixed part of the package.
For how super, leave and the unfair dismissal threshold treat a bonus, see our explainer on what OTE means in a salary offer.
How do you check your own pay?
Compare your base salary with people in the same job, industry and level in AusCorp Vault, our free salary benchmark.
The bonus slides, and the rest of the results, are on our 2026 Salary Survey page. The original Big Conversation, 10 things nobody tells you about your pay, has the slides with commentary, and how much your salary should increase each year covers base pay across a career.
More from the 2026 Salary Survey
- How much do Big 4 consultants earn in Australia?
- How much do corporate lawyers earn in Australia?
- How much do investment bankers earn in Australia?
- Which corporate jobs pay well with low stress?
Source: The Aussie Corporate 2026 Salary Survey, data as at September 2026. Spotted an error? Correct something.
