New York’s fiscal chief says that the bonuses of Wall Street climbed to a record $257,500 per worker last year.
State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says the average bonus paid to securities industry employees in New York climbed 20% to a record $257,000 for last year. The projection, which was released on Wednesday in the annual report from New York’s top fiscal officer, included cash bonuses for 2021 work and deferred awards paid out in recent times, according to DiNapoli. The higher compensation figures aren’t unexpected: Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, posted eye-popping revenue increases in January, fueled by booming mergers, public listings, and robust trading activity. In November, pay consultants said they expected banks to post the most significant increase in bonuses since 2009.
But DiNapoli’s report highlights Wall Street employees’ outsized role in New York’s financial health. He said that securities industry jobs make up just 5% of private-sector positions but accounted for 18%, or $14.9 billion, of state tax collections in the 2021 fiscal year. That’s because Wall Street workers make almost five times the $92,315 average salary in the private sector, excluding finance, according to the report. Securities workers saw overall compensation climb 7.7% to $438,370 for 2020, the comptroller’s latest data. “Wall Street’s soaring profits continued to beat expectations in 2021 and drove record bonuses,” DiNapoli said. “In New York, we won’t get back to our pre-Covid economic strength until more New Yorkers and more sectors — retail, tourism, construction, the arts and others — enjoy similar success.”