So I've heard about the top / middle / bottom bucket stuff - but are there usually just 3 distinct bonus figures for each level? Or would it be a continuous range between bottom and top bucket numbers?
Appreciate that this might differ bank to bank but do share insights from yours
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Every bank has their own system. Since it would be a mess for each person to say what they got, it’s easier to say one of the three (some banks do four rankings or even five). So, it’s kind of standardized to one of the three (if you’re not top and not bottom, you’re middle).
My BB has slightly different numbers for everyone which is kind of a mess. The top 1 or 2 at the top of the top bucket get ~$5k higher than the next guy who is also top bucket. Upper middle bucket gets ~$2.5k more than lower middle bucket. Numbers made up but you get the idea. At the analyst level it did go down to $2.5k differences though.
Obviously everyone anonymously shares their numbers and it ends up causing drama... instead of reactions being "wow, I am solidly in the middle, cool! I don't want to work enough to hit that next bucket" you are trying to figure out who is worth $2.5k more than you and trying to rank your class in an exact way. Even if they did 4 buckets it would be better.
I have heard some banks do as the above with major buckets and then variation within buckets. I have also heard of like smaller groups within banks (like an RX group) giving every analyst in the same class in that group just the same bonus check amount
In my first year, top and bottom bucket bonuses had a difference of $10k. Needless to say, not many of us were motivated to be in the top bucket for the next cycle.
At an EB. At a record year of 2021 the bonus bucket was $120K top, $100k middle, $80k for bottom bucket Analyst 1.
This year I'm hearing 80/60/40 split with some analysts getting the low bonus nod to leave the firm.
The deviation depends on the firm as well. I think overall BBs have wider range compared to EBs (anecdotally from my colleagues).
At the analyst levels, there are 3 general buckets on a bell curve. As mentioned above, you'll see something like 100 / 80 / 60 - but there will also be a handful of people that fall in between these buckets and also a couple in every class that get the $20-40k "get out of here" bonus.
At VP+, there are buckets but the "top bucket" grouping could have a range of $100-150k... more as you continue to climb
My former bank had a whole bunch of "buckets" and as far as I know the group head could move money around maybe ~$5k or so each at the analyst level so it became not really buckets at all.
For An1 it wasn't atypical to have someone who got paid like $3k more than you and someone else $2k less. Then like a whole bunch with the exact same. All some weird math that made sense to somebody up top I guess. I think the range in my group my first year was like less than $10k.
And then there were nuances to different groups falling in different spots along the pay scale, so one bad group's "top bucket" analyst was usually making less than a top group's worst ranked analyst. Would say at my bank group ended up mattering far more than individual performance.
Introduce tons of group politics and favoritism and reviewers with more pull than others. Much more of an art than a science and ultimately a number far, far out of your control and literally not worth more than a few minutes of your time, in my experience.
Great write up
First year analyst bonus difference between top and bottom bucket was 3k in my BB Coverage Group (what a joke)
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