After a record breaking year, bonus season is upon us.
Wanted to get a thread going to share what banks are paying so we can see which banks are low balling the juniors.
If you guys got your numbers, please disclose in the following fashion:
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Bank (Specific Bank Disclosure Encouraged)
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Group (Coverage, Product, etc)
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Position (Analyst 1, Analyst 2, Associate 1, etc)
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Rating (Top, Mid, Bottom)
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Bonus Amount (For BB let us know how much of that is stock)
Look forward to hearing from all of you!
FYI the app / website has a subscribe to thread button
Just got my number so I'll kick it off.
- Citi
- Coverage
- Associate 1 (not stub)
- Mid bucket
- 115 (25% stock, brings me down to a 86k cash bonus)
Record breaking year, and got the same median bonus as prior years...
Are you serious?! That's an insult.
- Location: NYC
- Base Salary: 175k (but during the call they said our salary 160k pro rated for the year)
A buddy of mine same class / group got 90, but is walking away with more cash in pocket since he doesn't get stock...
300k total comp is bad now?
BB S&T (I mean everyone knows what bank is communicating today but whatever)
VP2 - 200 + 130
Very good performance ratings
Not happy
I mean full disclosure, none of my post-analyst roles in S&T have been directly P&L link. I was a FO quant and now do what I would basically refer to as FO quant risk, which is basically a risk management type thing that sits within the business itself, not independent risk. So actual traders' comp I'm sure is probably higher than mine, and there have (or were at least last year) trolls around posting bogus low S&T comp.
There has been a range thrown around recently of 300-500k for VP in S&T, maybe adjust that down 15% since it was such a shit year and you are looking at 255-425? So yeah, I mean I guess 175-225 base + 80-200 bonus. I'm sure very high performers can break this range and I think the low end is pretty uncommon, 255 for a VP would be really bad.
I am tempted to jump to a fund and/or back into a direct risk taking role (might be harder than I think to get but I would at least have a legitimate chance). But on the flip side I work like 8-5:15 M-Th, 8-4 F and have a good amount of autonomy and respect within my team and am concerned that leaving that even for an extra 100-200k might be a stupid decision.
Manager communicating 10% YoY increase like it's a good thing.. inflation was 7%.. top performance ratings, what the fuck were they going to pay me if I was mid bucket?
$200k base + $135k bonus? Sounds soft…must be Citi
Just say tech dude lol
geothermal deals only
Why do people post anonymously (Analyst 1 in IB Gen, Associate 2 in IB Cov, etc) and use vague descriptions for banks (BB / Major city)? How much anonymity do you need?
Why did you post this anonymously?
Lol agreed if ur at a BB there’s like 500 other people at ur bank almost no chance to guess who the person is. Should just say the name of the bank and maybe ballpark
Any stub bonus numbers?
Stub here.
Citi gave us 40k
Vp2/3
Lev fin
Big bank
Base 300k
Bonus 275k but stock component
I’m ok with it. A little low, but hard to complain with 575k for a relatively easy year for me. I have great juniors who do the heavy lifting. I have lots of nice perks at work as well.
Also, you’ll find the longer you work in the real world, you start to understand some of the comp numbers here are not always realistic. Whether people exaggerate or just straight up lie, I’m not sure.
Thief is the comparison of joy. Also the fact my wife makes more than me takes away some the sting of a “relatively” low bonus lol.
What does your wife do? 575K is an amazing year
Why aren’t you a stay at home dad
Successful women tend to not be attracted to losers who sit at home unfortunately.
Yea, but that can be rough timing
Citi paying shit bonuses in the middle of the great resignation / super hot job market.
Lets wait and see what non-Citi banks do please
Village banks
Those of you who work at bulge brackets are going to be pretty disappointed if you thought that your bonus would increase proportionately with the massive surge in IB revenues that banks have generated this year. That's just not how it works these days
I think there will be a lot of people in banking who quit this year. Likely won't be to the same extent as it was last year, but still will be unusually high.
COVID (and the aftereffects here in the U.S. including but not limited to runaway inflation, loss of faith in institutions, mental health issues and general feeling of malaise among a lot of people) has fundamentally changed how a lot of people think about work. When a lot of individuals now think about how they want to spend their limited time on earth, it's not compatible with the miserable conditions that one has to endure in banking. This applies mostly to the analyst / associate / VP levels - the people who are in the trenches doing most of the work and bearing the brunt of the BS. Do you really want to lay on your death bed knowing that you wasted the prime years of your life sitting in front of a computer monitor shifting around images on a powerpoint, dealing with sociopaths all around you, and other nonsense tasks that are inherently meaningless?
The increased salaries / bonuses are a mirage. Not to make this political, but while the official government inflation numbers are in the high single digits, in reality inflation is tracking more in the range of 15-20% (anyone who understands how components of CPI are calculated, one egregious example being owners' equivalent rent, knows it's BS and massively understated right now). So your base / bonus increase is a mirage and translates into a flat income in real terms. Sure, it's better than having a nominally flat or very modestly increased salary, which is the situation for the majority of workers, but it's not exactly encouraging for those of you who spend every waking minute working and constantly under immense amounts of stress.
Banking is not an attractive job and the conditions are poor as they have always been. The industry has been bleeding talent for over a decade now, and that trend has accelerated most recently due to COVID related effects. People bear with the job because it pays more than most other occupations and does not actually require any real skills or talents that those working legitimate jobs hold. But as the lifestyle and pay become less and less attractive on a relative basis, the trend will just continue. HR people in banks are morons, and senior bankers, who are generally deeply flawed people, will continue doing things as they have always done, so nothing will change. The people here who continue to be deluded need to accept reality and assess what matters to them in life.
Bleed talent? You just said all we did is move things around in PowerPoint lol.
While I generally agree with a lot of what you're saying, the more time I spend in banking the more I start to question whether the grass is really greener elsewhere. I've definitely been there, questioning if the hours, psycho bosses, etc. are worth it, and whether things would be much better in a cushy F500 gig.
However, I've spent time in the corporate world pre-banking, and while I could hit the gym every single day and do happy hour in the middle of the week, my free time was pretty wasted.. just getting hammered with friends, watching sports or playing video games. And with a couple years of experience in banking now I actually have the freedom / free time to still do those things, just not as often.
Kind of rambling but there are trade-offs to everything. Personally the trade-off right now is worth it and banking is indeed an attractive job. Or maybe I just have Stockholm Syndrome and can't get off the hedonic treadmill.
Also I think lot of these people fail to take into account that most of corporate America still is a tough environment with long hours and a 40 hour week isn’t a real thing anywhere. So the alternative to IB isn’t really a cushy 40 hr week job. If you are ambitious and want to be earning >$200k in your 30s you will still be slogging.
If you’re in a good position which pays well and has responsibilities in a F100; you are still pulling in 60ish hours on most weeks and you still aren’t taking PTOs and vacations for fun.
We aren’t in Europe or something where you are working 35-40 hour weeks and have half days of fridays and 6-8 weeks of paid vacation.
So the whole shitting on IB is pretty uninformed in my opinion. I’ve worked in finance and on the corporate side and not to brag but post MBA had a whole lot of offers paying >$150k at least. And I assure you VERY FEW of them had a culture where you are pulling in sub 50 hours. Compared to banking; other shops def have a better PTO policy so I’ll give you that. Even tech people put in long hours and there’s only a handful of one offs where they are chilling straight up. But that’s something team specific and you can’t plan for that. Lawyers pull in similar and their hours are as bad as IB.
So yes IB has a bad WLB, and yes it’s not changing any time soon. But if you are ambitious and want to play in a >$250k field as an employee in your 20s and early 30s, then there aren’t many jobs which won’t require such sacrifices.
All said and done. My point is that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Rarely is. I would definitely consider a $200k gig for a 40 hour work week but the reality is most such gigs require 60ish. So I’d rather put in an extra 10-20 hrs and double my income.
- Asian Bank
- Associate 1
- Rating - mid/bottom
- Bonus: Communicated 100. 150+100 all in.
Don't join an French or Asian bank.
Bank: EB
Group: M&A
Position: Associate 1 (1st non-stub year)
Rating: Mid
Bonus Amount: around $240 (Since base was raised during the year, the bonus = Total comp number less the actual base salary paid, TC had a 4 handle)
Dear all BB associates - come on over! We need associates!
Upper MM coverage
Aso1 (not stub)
Base: $170k, going to $200k
Bucket: mid
Bonus: $150k, 30% deferred, vests 10%/ann
I'll just give you top.
Top VP 1 - 600
Top VP 2 - 750
Top VP 3 - 1MM
"Oh cool the bonus thread has 58 new comments"
*giant argument about a dudes wife in the medical field*
Downside to not having mods. Would be nice to have a thread like this with compiled numbers.
Dumb question but what's a stub bonus
Mid / low tier MM
Product group, although bank is focused on small subset of sectors
Associate 1 (first full year)
All in $400k+
Year was an anomaly for sure and was in a high producing team.
Top BB
Associate 2 (Assoc. 3 now)
Not sure but probably mid
Top coverage group
Bonus: $168 (some deferred)
Very disappointed
There is an argument that a top BB is a better platform to becoming MD since your wallet includes debt, equity etc and the credit relationships can help drive strategic business as well. Plus offers more downside protection when M&A cycles to lower activity as you still have regular-way financing activity.
On the boutique side, there is the risk of becoming an execution MD for a partner, but there’s also probably more white space in general, not to mention much more upside in comp.
We’ve basically seen a great M&A market these last few years (except 6 months in Covid), so it will be interesting to see what happens when the downturn comes. I expect boutiques to slash a ton of folks across junior and senior levels.
Like its "our" bonus and not "yours"
Why are you both a dick and an idiot? Product groups are a small set of total bankers at the firms that announced numbers already.
I’m sure product numbers will come out eventually when there’s more firms that have announced (to help protect identity)
get a glass of water champ about to blow a gasket
A lot of you think everyone underpaid. Compensation expense is not comp per head. All the banks hired ALOT. Take the dollars for comp and then subtract how much they actually hired
Who cares and/or how is that my problem?
Yes they just resigned
Any word on SVB, Guggenheim, and Jefferies?
Your MD includes it in your next mark-up
No one smart enough to break into banking is dumb enough to do this
lol, this is how I used to feel. No one in banking would be stupid enough to do x or y. And without fail, I am consistently let down. I know of an associate who was let go for falsifying a whopping $200 worth of Uber receipts; you could find the dumbest person selling credit card apps at one of those booths at the airport and even they wouldn't risk a career paying deep into six figures for a $200 savings but there you go.
You get a dunce cap and 0 bonus
Associate 3 at "no asshole" middle market in Chicago/Milwaukee.
$630 TC (inclusive of 200 base, 360 bonus, 20 in profit sharing (in separate 5 and 15 increments during the year), and 50 in stock)
Not joking. Holy cow.
If you're feeling disappointed with your bank...uh, we're hiring.
"no asshole" policy is Baird.
Jfc. At half the % income tax compared to NYC. good shit dude.
JPM / Aso 1 / 192.5k bonus (20% stock) / Base going up to 200k
I have a feeling its going to be underwhelming.
Last year's bonus numbers were shit and caused mass attrition, likely more than Barclays anticipated. So they ramped up hiring and added a ton of new people. It might be similar to Citi's where bonus pool has gone up but so has headcount.
Haha. The solution to mass attrition caused by crap bonuses, is more crap bonuses?
GS / ASO1 / Bonus: $340k (20% stock) / Total Comp: $490 / Base going up to $200k
GS ASO 1
Non-TMT Coverage
~460k+ all in
Base increase to 200k
Sucks for all the people who lateraled out of GS the past few months…
As the kids say, “LFG”
Does anyone know when Wells Fargo announces?
GS
VP
Coverage / top group / near top %
$1.4+\-; significant YoY increase
Second time at firm been surprised to upside.
Fuck, so proud to see some of these insane numbers. Investment banking getting back a lot of that pre-GFC shine. Now just gotta bring back the insane parties and wild expense accounts and fully stunt on the tech bros.
Great GS numbers, but it sounds like they typically underpay and maybe every once in a while pay a lot.
So after 4 years of underpaying (call it 75-100% of base), this is the one year they're paying 200% of base?
Good for GS, but should see how this develops over the next few years. BBs strike me as inconsistent in their pay - potential to make a lot, but potential to be hosed. It's very intriguing to see these numbers, but I'm not necessarily going to apply to GS anytime soon
The phrase "apply to GS" tells us all we need to know about your chances of landing a job at GS
European non-BB
I think a lot of you guys aren't grasping the reality that as salaries rise, bonuses will continue to shrink. Generally speaking the goal is to minimize the compensation pool while keeping only a small group of certain "top" people happy enough to not leave. People can say whatever they want as far as "next year will be better" or what's "typical", but the truth is guaranteeing more money through salary means discretionary part of comp will go down, potentially even more so, relatively speaking.
.
Bonus: $30k (30%)
Group: Real Estate Development PE
Positon: Associate 1
Rating: Top
Not too happy but I was told I would top out at 30%
"Real Estate Development PE" at a family office posting on the IB bonus thread...
GS
MBA Stub Associate (AS0)
base: 175k, 401k match
stub bonus: 100k, all cash
sign on: 60k
Walking away with almost 250k pre tax all in for ~6 months on the desk. Surreal.
Caveat, this came at a major cost to my life and health that I have trouble reconciling.
MM bank this website loves to shit on; Midwest
M&A
AS2
Top
$445K total comp / 100% cash
AS3 base to $225K
GS ASO1 (first year non-stub), non TMT coverage
all in 490k, base 150k, so bonus 340k
of that 70k is stock
new base 200k
For context, all in IBD comp was around 130k when I was at a first year analyst at top BB (85k base + 45k bonus), started in 2016.
My old apartment lease was 2500 per month. Right now it's $3500 per month.
Food is probably 40% more (chipotle burrito was 10 bucks with meat and quac, its closer to 14 dollars now).
While salaries are higher (seems like Analyst 1 comp is 180k), its really just an inflation bump.
BofA
$35k Stub
Disappointed
BB NYC
ASO 3
Product
Above average ranking, not top bucket but not middle
$255 bonus (70% cash)
Promotion to VP. Salary bumps to $275 from $225
Blair
Analyst 1
Rating: N/A; all Analyst 1's get the same stub
40k stub
- -
50k base (prorated, based on 85k base initially which was bumped up to 110k)
+40k stub
+10k sign-on
+5k special one-time bonus
= 105k all-in for ~6 months of work
BB(ofA?)
ASO 2 (Industry Coverage)
Bonus: ~$85k (75% cash / 25% stock)
Number isn’t rounded because of base bump to $200k in early 2021)
Bucket: Meets Expectations/Meets Expectations (Bottom Bucket)
TC: $275k
Base bump: $225k
Strong group across the street but terrible Work/Life balance and aloof management. Likely the time to eject…
Firm: Blair
Role: Associate 2 (first year)
Base: $150 to $175, moving up to $200
Bonus: ~170% of blended base
The firm delivered on promises of higher compensation for 2021.
Lmao
I've heard Moelis 1st year associate all-in was 430 / 450 / 465 but could be wrong
I posted ~$280 rather that a precise number to provide myself some anonymity. Let’s not be autists here. I heard a significantly wider range (higher and lower) than this though, first hand.
Lincoln
A3 (promoted to VP)
Base $225
Bonus $300 cash
Great year
Thank you for saying the name instead of making us guess
Anything from Evercore, Lazard, PWP, Liontree?
Any numbers from UBS/DB???
WB
Analyst 3 (Year 1.5 - 2.5)
Base $95k --> $125k (effective July)
Bonus (Mid-Top / Top): 180% of blended base, includes $20k one-time bonus
Total Comp: >$300k cash
Commenting for visibility of pay at junior level; great place to build a career. Phenomenal at partner level.
Can we get some Evercore numbers in here? Heard today was the day
Any word from Credit Suisse? Wonder how their bonuses are this year given all the turbulences.
.
VP3 (now DIR1)
Bank: BB who has had some significant issues this year (lol)
Position: VP3
Rating: Top
Bonus Amount: $470k (30% stock / 70% cash)
TC: $745k (275k base which only went into effect mid-way through the year)
Happy. Can't complain given how the rest of the world lives. I'm saying goodbye given the clawbacks introduced to Directors and beyond. Thanks for the final payday.
Anything on SVBL?
Total comp isn't as sexy as associates at other banks but I am working less than 40 hours a week, never work weekends and have a pretty good team set up. I think about trying to move upstream to make more money and get a more reputable name on my CV but I like my work life balance too much.
Gugg numbers out today, what's the good word?
edit
Friend in coverage group got $90K as stub associate