Wall Street Bonuses Highest Since 2008

"In response to compensation reforms, firms now pay a smaller share of bonuses in the current year and a larger share is deferred to future years," the comptroller's office explained.

Due to these trends, the number of industry jobs in New York has not returned to its pre-crisis level: Some 165,200 employees worked in the securities industry last year, nearly 13% fewer than before the financial crisis.

Other industry trends highlighted by the controller include:

• Over the past two years, the bonus pool for securities industry staff has grown 44%, driven by compensation deferred from prior years;
• The average industry salary (with bonuses) was $360,700 in 2012, more than five times greater than the rest of the private sector ($69,200);
• The securities industry accounted for 22% of all private-sector wages paid in New York despite the fact that it represents only 5% of its private-sector jobs;
• New York City collected $3.8 billion in taxes in fiscal 2013 from activities directly attributed to the securities industry, nearly 27% more than in the prior year; the level was still about 11% less than before the crisis, but the securities industry accounted for 8.5 percent of the city's tax revenues last year
• The state of New York collected $10.3 billion in taxes attributed to the securities industry during the latest fiscal year, or about 16% of all state tax revenue, versus 20% at the prerecession peak.