Do banks pay for your housing?
Hi all,
So do banks pay for housing expenses? If you are not a local of the office you are hired into, for instance Hong Kong or New York, monthly rent might be maybe 24,000~36,000 USD/year, as a reasonable low~medium budget range. Do banks pay for the entire cost, apart from the nominal salary + bonus? I am also interested in whether BigLaw firms or IT firms (Google, etc) also do the same.
I'm wondering since I make a little more than half the amount that a IB associate makes, but I pay close to nothing in housing (maybe $6,000) and living expenses ($12,000), and taxes ($20,000) and save $50,000/year after tax. If I were living in NY, I would have to be paid $160,000/year to save the same amount. I also get local offers from bulge bracket banks, where the pay is perhaps 70% of what you could make in New York. So I'm wondering whether I should try and leave my current location or stay put within the vicinity.
yeah its called a salary
so housing allowance is included in the total compensation?
It’s not called a housing allowance anymore what they would’ve given you for that is included in your salary.
I wish.. I pay a tesla a year in rent living in SF
Do you ever see an increase in bonus for SF bankers that partially offset this? Or is all-in salary the same across cities?
Ya we're fuckin breaded
Is SF more expensive than NY?
CA is more of a sprawled city. NY, there are so many spots within ~20 minute walking distance even $1.5-2K/mo. with shitty apt's. My experience (from looking at both cities) is if you want to be able to walk to the office or walk to bus stop and be at work quickly the COL is somewhat the same in LA because it's more sprawled and has pretty decent public transport. SF is definitely more expensive, there just aren't as many places to live in the city if you don't want to drive because people don't really build up. NY is just more shitty at the lower end in terms of older developments and claustrophobic staircases.
but there are just so many more intermittent places available in Manhattan / Midtown that are squished up places to rest your head.
BBs in HK will pay housing stipends that cover most of not all rental costs
But is your salary less?
Usually it’s the same. Just more housing allowances
Banks in HK pay a housing stipend, but salary is definitely less. However tax is also less, so if you're NOT a US taxpayer, it's kind of a wash. If you are US tax payer, you can do a 2555 deduction, but you still pay global taxes to US after you're done paying HK taxes.
From the wording of the post I presume you're HK based, and are wondering if it makes sense to move to USA. I think you can expect that housing stipend to go away, your tax rate to go waaaay up, but your salary to go up too.
At least at most BB it’s global pay, so base salary is exact same at each level. But US bankers may have much stable/higher bonuses each year, bc deal flows / clients willingness to pay can be so much higher
getting rent in Houston
short answer: no
No... that's why you have a salary. I'd say it's very rare to get housing comped unless you're an expat.
Expat, meaning someone hired in NY but seconded to HK, for instance?
you might be able to negotiate a relocation bonus
Yeap exactly - although from some posters it seems to be a bit different in HK.
No. That's why salaries are much higher in high CoL cities like NYC/SF lol
Not as true in banking from what I've seen, tends to be flat across the board regardless of city (at least w/in the US).
Maybe salaries are different in ops, but front office banking roles are not paid differently.
I would calm down buddy you wont even make it into ops
Your math wasn’t totally clear, for example taxes I don’t know if taxes means all taxes or what.
But as someone who’s lived in a bunch of different cities including multiple stints in NYC, I can tell you that generally speaking NYC is a better deal when you account for everything.
Salaries are usually higher to somewhat compensate for COL.
Additionally, the acceptable apartment is smaller in NYC so don’t make the mistake of comparing pure apples to apples. You can’t be like “oh I have a nice pad in a doorman building in a nice part of Houston for $1k, the same sq ft and setup in NYC is $4k”. Technically it is, but realistically people in NYC just don’t live like that. It’s more common to have less space overall, uglier buildings, roommates at a later age, etc etc. So it just isn’t apples to apples on rent. The status-equivalent move if you have a nice 1bd in say Houston is to move to a small studio in Manhattan and double your rent. Like that’s what actually happens.
Last thing is, higher COL does actually get something. Those are more fun cities, more convenient etc. How to convert that to a hard dollar value, well in my case my travel budget would go way down when living in NYC bc I like hanging out there so I subtract that savings from the COL.
All said and done I always saved more living there vs Chicago, Austin and DC which is the other places I’ve lived.
Also if working in finance gotta put some value on network benefit
could you chime on how nyc is compared to dc?
NYC is a better deal than DC. DC isn't total shit or anything, but its oddly expensive for being a pretty ordinary place. NYC is a lot more fun for only a bit more dough. In fact, I'd say my favorite thing about DC is the ability to catch a easy train to NYC.
Among the places I know well, my fun-to-cost ratio ranking is as follows:
Chicago - great town and cheap compared to the other big cities
NYC - best city, most expensive, but tiebreaker is that most jobs there pay a little more than other cities
Austin - still quite cheap despite all the locals telling you how expensive its gotten. Pretty fun, but "too hot to live" season can last 3-6 months depending on who you are
LA - pretty fun but pretty expensive, god awful traffic is the tiebreaker
DC - as mentioned its oddly expensive and kind of average overall
SF - worst ratio by far, costs a fortune to live there and not nearly cool enough to justify it. I didn't hate living there, but that's only bc I was in corporate housing. If that was my actual rent I would've been depressed.
Regarding your BigLaw question, they normally pay housing/extra cost of living in HK and a handful of other places in Asia, while salary and bonus structure remains the same as it would be if one is working in the US. So it's very common for junior/mid-level lawyers at top law firms in HK/Asia to be making more than counterparts in finance, especially given how finance bonuses have been the last few years in Asia.
Sorry your living expenses (essentially everything non rent) are 12k a year? Do you have any fun or just sit at home?
I spent ~6 months working in London while employed at a BB where my base location was New York. A corporate apartment was paid for (~$8k per month) while I was there. Expensed to the corporate card. This is standard if you are temporarily working in another city.
Your bank is obviously not going to pay for your housing in the city in which you are employed.
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