Wall Street Bonuses Take a 26% Plunge

With inflation rising last year and recession worries mounting, Wall Street firms saw profits slipping. One result was the pool for employee bonuses drying up after the good financial times early in the pandemic, the Guardian reports. The kitty fell 26% last year, putting the average bonus at $176,700. "A 26% decline brings the average bonus closer to what financial employees received prior to the pandemic," New York City Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Thursday in a statement. The data was compiled in a report from the comptroller's office. The bonuses haven't been this small since 2019. The record bonuses in 2021 averaged $240,000, per the Wall Street Journal.

That means the city and New York State take a hit, as well. Wall Street provides 22% of the state's tax revenue and 8% of New York City's, DiNapoli said. Still, "our economic recovery does not depend solely on Wall Street," he said, adding that the leisure and hospitality, retail, restaurant, and construction sectors have to improve if there's going to be a complete economic pandemic recovery. Inequality.org, a research nonprofit, calculated that the average base salary for securities industry employees in New York was $516,560 in 2021. Companies have been bringing in less money from deal-advising fees, stock offerings, and bond sales, per the Journal. (More Wall Street stories.)