- Wall Street bonuses fell 2% last year compared to 2022
- The bankers still raked in a colossal sum of $176,500, compared to $180,000 the previous year.
- Bonuses have yet to rebound from their all-time high of $240,400 in 2021
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Despite a turbulent year for the stock market, Wall Street bonuses fell 2% last year compared to 2022.
The average Wall Street bonus still stood at $176,500, a collective $33.8 billion, down from $180,000 the year before.
The shift came as the industry added staff and took a “more conservative approach” to compensation, the New York State comptroller’s office said in releasing the numbers Tuesday.
Expectations were low despite Wall Street earnings rising 1.8 percent last year and the S&P rising 24 percent throughout the year.
Higher interest rates, a slowdown in trading activities and unstable geopolitics have led to caution about spending on large premiums.
Bonuses have yet to catch up to their all-time high in 2021, when bankers raked in an average of $240,400.
Bonuses fell further for investment bankers in particular last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Wall Street provides 27 percent of New York state’s tax revenue and 7 percent of the city’s tax revenue, according to the comptroller.
“While these bonuses affect state and city tax revenue, both projected larger declines, so the impact on projected revenue is expected to be limited,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.
“The continued strength of the securities industry should not overshadow the broader economic situation in New York, where we need all sectors to fully recover from the pandemic,” he added.
Bonuses for bank investors have fallen an average of 25 percent, according to Wall Street compensation consultant Johnson Associates.
“It’s disappointing,” Alan Johnson, chief executive of Johnson Associates, told the Journal.
“Everyone was hoping for a resumption of business.”
The average Wall Street bonus still stood at $176,500, up from $180,000 the previous year.
“Most Wall Street professionals will have to wait another year to see a rebound in year-end bonuses,” Johnson told the New York Post.
Some bankers were unimpressed with the payouts, and many employees expressed their frustration on Litquidity, a social media page for securities industry workers.
“The Citi bonuses were downright disrespectful,” one employee complained to the finance-focused account.
Another said Citi’s payments were “wild across the board”, with one colleague calling them “absolute crap”.
Citibank announced earlier this year that it would cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years.
“I can’t say anyone was really happy,” one Goldman Sachs employee said of last year’s bonuses.