The company published the remunerations figures at the same time as it announced it plans to make 7,000 redundancies in 2014.
Details within the banks full year results stated the total incentive awards granted for 2013 was £2.4 billion, up from £2.2 billion in 2012. Both of these figures were lower than in 2010.
Group chief executive Antony Jenkins said in the report that Barclays believed in “paying for performance and paying competitively”.
“Ensuring that we have the right people in the right roles serving our customers and clients effectively in a highly competitive global environment is vital to our ability to generate sustainable shareholder returns,” he said.
“After careful consideration, we determined that an increase of £210 million over the prior year in the incentive pool was required in 2013 in order to build our franchise in the long-term interests of shareholders.
“Notwithstanding this increase we remain committed to our goal of reducing the compensation to net income ratio over the medium term to the mid-30s.”
Jenkins announced plans for job cuts during briefings to the press. He told the BBC 820 senior manager roles would be affected, of which 220 were managing directors and 600 director roles. About 400 of the senior job cuts will come from the investment banking division.
As well as the cuts to UK staff, Barclays could cut up to 5,000 more job roles in other countries.
Trades Union Congress general secretary Frances O’Grady said the public would be surprised by the bonus increase.
“Most people will find it hard to understand why a bank which has seen a big drop in profits has decided to increase its bonus pool to a whopping £2.4 billion,” she said.
“So while many at Barclays are today celebrating their bonus bonanza, hard-pressed families still experiencing the financial pain of the recession – a recession caused in part by the reckless actions of the banks – will be struggling to make sense of it all.”
Barclay’s adjusted pre-tax profits for 2013 fell to £5.2 billion, while its statutory pre-tax profits rose to £2.9 billion.
