Labour party leader Ed Milliband said RBS chief executive Stephen Hester should not receive his bonus while a record high of 1.04m young people are now unemployed.
Various figures have been reported on how much the banking chief will receive, ranging from £1m to £1.6m.
The leader made his remarks on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics show.
He said: “Taxpayers are still footing the bill for what’s happening at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
“If responsibility means anything, I don’t think he should be getting his bonus. And the prime minister, if he’s true to his word, would exercise his responsibility to do something about that.”
Speaking before a Labour-led Commons debate Rachel Reeves, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, criticised David Cameron’s pledges to control excessive bonuses as banks continue to pay out multimillion-pound bonuses even when their share prices have almost halved.