Record holiday bonuses being awarded by Wall Street
Wednesday, December 20, 2006 at 12:37PM Wall Street is being very generous this year, according to a report released on Tuesday by the state comptroller. They are expected to pay out $23.9 billion dollars in bonuses this holiday season, beating last year’s record by 17 percent. 2006 marks the fourth year that Wall Street bonuses have increased.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the world’s largest investment bank, is dedicating $16.5 billion for salaries, bonuses, and benefits at the end of this year. The upper level managers at Goldman Sachs, “the golden 25”, could get at least $25 million each.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and Bear Stearns Cos. say they will pay about $12 billion, about $300.000 per employee.
Morgan Stanley Inc., the second-largest investment house in America, gave it cheif executive John Mack $40 million in stocks and options for 2006. It is one of the largest bonuses ever given to a Wall Street CEO.
The average bonus will average $137,580 this year for Wall Streeters. In comparison, New Yorkers who don’t work on Wall Street earned $56,634 last year. Wall Street employees account for less than 5 percent of the jobs in New York, but they receive 20% of the wages earned.
So what does that mean for the city of New York and New York state? More money gets pumped in to their economy. Wall Streeters spend their money in the city and the surrounding suburbs on entertainment, real estate, automobiles, and other consumer goods. In turn, their spending generates jobs and increases the tax revenues paid to the State of New York.
Dawn Turner
Blog Manager
The Searchlogix Group
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