Advisors' bonuses are not maintaining the same pace as industry profit growth, according to the New York State Comptroller's office.
The latest results of the yearly survey find that Wall Street's pretax profits jumped 21% last year, yet the average bonus paid to employees of broker-dealers and other firms grew by only 1% to $138,210.
"Wall Street profits bounced back strongly in 2016…," Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli explained in a statement. "Bonuses were up only slightly in New York City as the industry held the line on compensation."
Pretax profits for New York Stock Exchange member firms, the traditional measure of industry profitability, hit $17.3 billion in 2016, the highest level in four years, according to the report. Profits were driven by cost-cutting and lower noncompensation expenses, the analysis states, including costs of legal settlements.
The average salary, including bonuses, on Wall Street was $388,000 in 2015, the latest annual data available, the comptroller says. This was five times higher than pay in other parts of the private sector, which averaged $74,000.
"Nearly one-quarter (23%) of the industry's employees in the city earned more than $250,000, compared with 2% in the rest of the city's workforce," the report stated.
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