The Obama administration handed out about $408 million in awards to federal employees last year, up by more than $80 million from the prior year, according to new government data.

A total of 359,400 government employees, or about one out of four workers, received some extra compensation last year, according to a review of fiscal 2009 salary reports from the Office of Personnel Management. The biggest winners were air traffic controllers and top managers in Washington.

But the merit pay amounts to only 0.3 percent of the $150 billion in salaries for civilian employees.

OPM's data, obtained by the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press through a Freedom of Information Act request, accounts for 1.3 million employees, or about 65 percent of the federal civilian workforce. It excludes the departments of Defense and Treasury, security agencies such as the CIA and FBI, the White House, Congress and various independent commissions and agencies, such as the U.S. Postal Service.

As a comparison, the New York-based investment banking giant Goldman Sachs Group shelled out $16.2 billion in bonuses to its 32,500 employees — an average of nearly $500,000 per worker. The average for government workers was about $1,137.

With fewer incentives, government employees have little motivation to do a better job, said James Sherk, a labor economic expert at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

"They are human. We are all human. People respond to incentives," he said. "If your pay is based on your performance, you work harder."

Efforts under former President George W. Bush to move civilian employees in the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to a more merit-based pay system failed because of opposition from unions, Sherk said.

Jacqueline Simon, public policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees, said managers have always had ample power to reward employees for good work. It's just that there isn't enough bonus money to go around, she said.

"Less than half of a percent [of the payroll] is a very small amount of money to play around with to provide awards," said Simon of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 600,000 civilian workers. "It's not enough to really alter the incentive structure in the pay system."

The average salary for all civilian government employees was $72,200 last year, according to OPM.

President Obama has eliminated awards for the last two years for employees in the executive office of the president, according to the White House. That's in addition to the pay freeze for senior White House staff that Obama initiated on his first day in office in January 2009. White House staffers who make more than $100,000 have had their pay frozen since that time.

Not all awards are in cash. Individuals and groups can be given time off for good work, which OPM counts as compensation.

Awards ranged from $25 to $94,200.

The highest amount was paid to a senior foreign affairs officer at the State Department in Washington.

The largest single amount of award money, $31.4 million, went to air traffic controllers with the Federal Aviation Administration. Nearly 13,100 controllers received an average award of $2,398, up from an average of $541 in fiscal 2008, according to the OPM data. A total of 19,000 air traffic controllers were paid an average of $111,000 last year.

A FAA spokeswoman disputed OPM's numbers, saying the awards appeared to cover non-air traffic controller employees as well as controllers. The spokeswoman did not respond to requests for what FAA said it spent on award payments last year.

The largest individual awards went to some of the highest-ranking officials. More than $11.6 million was awarded to 870 employees classified as senior executives — an average of $13,337 each. There are a total 6,400 senior executives and their average salary was $163,449 last year. For those 870 receiving an award, the amounts ranged from $43 to $94,200.

While Obama may be the highest-paid federal official at $400,000 a year, several employees — all doctors or medical officers at the Veterans Benefits Administration — come close to that top salary. A total of 23 medical officers were paid between $350,000 and $393,400 last year. Only one received a bonus — $650.

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Paul D'Ambrosio is investigations editor at the Asbury Park Press. Reporter Jean Mikle contributed.