Bankers: Our bonuses aren't big enough

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

There was none of the old swagger at Citigroup headquarters on Friday. The bonus checks had landed — and some of the bankers were grumbling.

After a year of yawning losses at the company, employees lamented that times were getting lean. The giant bank, the recipient of two multibillion-dollar rescues from Washington, had paid out only about $4 billion in bonuses.

Only?

If you’ve never worked on Wall Street, it is hard to wrap your head around the idea that a company that lost nearly $19 billion in a single year, as Citigroup did in 2008, could still pay its employees billions in bonuses. It is probably even harder to believe that some of those employees grumble about it.

“I feel like I got a doorman’s tip, compared to what I got in previous years,” said a 30-something investment banking associate at Citigroup’s offices in Lower Manhattan.

That kind of glum talk is being heard all over Wall Street, where money is the measure and bonuses the ultimate yardstick. To bankers and traders, bonuses, which account for the bulk of their pay, justify those long days and sleepless nights spent crunching numbers or watching bond prices dance across computer screens.

But with everyone from President Obama on down chastising bankers for paying themselves billions in bonuses at a time taxpayer money is propping up the financial industry, once-unthinkable questions are starting to arise. Could bonuses, the stuff of Wall Street dreams, become a thing of the past? Could this decades-old incentive system, born of the private partnerships that once ruled Wall Street, be replaced? If so, by what?

For all the tectonic shifts reshaping the financial landscape, one thing has not changed: the bonus culture. Wall Streeters who make a lot of money for their employers expect to reap the rewards. In the parlance of the industry, they expect to eat what they kill.

...

The bonus culture runs deep. Executives and rank-and-file workers argue that lawmakers and others who complain about bonuses do not understand how this industry works. Bonuses, Wall Streeters say, are a crucial part of total compensation, and are often treated as deferred salaries. And generally bosses weigh individual performance more heavily than the company’s overall results.

...

“Without a doubt, $18 billion is a lot of money, but it’s a drop in the bucket on Wall Street,” said Gustavo Dolfino, president of the WhiteRock Group, a headhunter for the banks. “These bonuses are down, and the salaries are not enough for these people. They can’t live on $150 to $180,000, so they haven’t saved any money. They put it on credit lines and at bonus time, they thought they’d pay it off.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/business/31bonus.html

[Smallz 0]

That's just sick...

I wish they were in the situation where they had to survive on 1500 bucks a month

Not to mention that they got us into all that mess in the first place.

[DairyFarmer 1]

That's just sick...

I wish they were in the situation where they had to survive on 1500 bucks a month

Not to mention that they got us into all that mess in the first place.

Try $700 a month!!!!!!!!

[Smallz 0]

That's just sick...

I wish they were in the situation where they had to survive on 1500 bucks a month

Not to mention that they got us into all that mess in the first place.

Try $700 a month!!!!!!!!

Agree. The bottom line is... what's the point in bailing those a-holes out if all we do is pay their bonuses.

[DairyFarmer 1]

Although to be fair, some people in the industry are paid like waitress' and rely on the bonus' like tips.

Not all who receive bonus are in 5 figures.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Although to be fair, some people in the industry are paid like waitress' and rely on the bonus' like tips.

Not all who receive bonus are in 5 figures.

You mean 6 I assume.

[DairyFarmer 1]

Yep

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

And yes, it's true. Where I work (in insurance) bonus eligibility starts at band 7 which has a low-end payscale in the mid 50s. Average bonuses are nothing like Wall Street, maxing out at about 25-30%, so there's definitely tons of 5-figure salaries in bonus eligibility range.

[DairyFarmer 1]

And yes, it's true. Where I work (in insurance) bonus eligibility starts at band 7 which has a low-end payscale in the mid 50s. Average bonuses are nothing like Wall Street, maxing out at about 25-30%, so there's definitely tons of 5-figure salaries in bonus eligibility range.

My experience too. And whilst the potential is for 25-30 because it is performance based many don't get the full wack. Also I have been at a couple of investment and insurance companies where a portion is linked to the performance of the company, so you can work your tail off but get screwed b/c of the companies performance.

[pedroh 21]

aj stop defending the bankers, they are the ones who got us into this problem, u corporate fascist cheerleader

Edited January 31, 2009 by pedroh

[pedroh 21]

stop the NWO

[Ban Hammer 14,279]

i loathe citimortgage.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

aj stop defending the bankers, they are the ones who got us into this problem, u corporate fascist cheerleader

corporate america ftw!

[DairyFarmer 1]

aj stop defending the bankers, they are the ones who got us into this problem, u corporate fascist cheerleader

corporate america ftw!

[NickD 203]

Citibank probably went broke sending me zillions of junk mail trying to get me to bank with them, I assume I am not the only one, they also send tons of stuff to my wife, and now my daughter that she is over 18.

Just as soon do business with my local bank, FDIC approved, and know where the president lives, so I can kill him if anything happens to my money.