More than £24 billion in bonuses was handed out to UK workers in the last year, financial services firm Birmingham Midshires says.
Twenty-nine per cent of 2,000 survey respondents received a financial "pat on the back" from their employers, the research claims, with the average bonus being £1,758.
But whereas the number of those being rewarded with a bonus has doubled since 2005, the average windfall has more than halved.
City-fuelled Londoners were more likely to have received a bonus than residents of any other UK region, while bonuses in Scotland were the least common.
Almost two-fifths of people ploughed their one-off payments into savings accounts, with holidays, property investments and retail investments also popular choices.
"We all know that it can be extremely tempting to spend a large one-off payment but the research found that over a third of people are squirreling away their bonus and we think this is a good start," said Birmingham Midshires director of savings operations Jason Robinson.
"It is important to shop around for the best rate when deciding where to put your hard earned cash and choose a competitive savings account."
Today's research also revealed that 33 per cent of working men had received a bonus in 2006, compared to 24 per cent of women.
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