According to estimates by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the average bonus paid to securities industry employees in New York City went up 17 percent last year to $184,200. That's a level not seen since before the financial crisis. It's also more than triple the national median household income which was $59,039 in 2016. The average bonus last year wasn't far off the record $191,360 from 2006, right before the financial crisis struck.
In total, the 2017 bonus pool came to $31.4 billion, up from $26.9 billion in 2016. The report said that bonuses were likely boosted last year from tax law changes that remove the corporate deduction for performance-based pay from the beginning of 2018. That resulted in many firms moving their payments up to December of last year. Pretax profits from broker-dealer operations of the NYSE also increased 42 percent to $24.5 billion, the highest level since 2010.
Wall Street Bonuses Reach Pre-Crisis Levels
Wall Street Bonuses
Description
This chart shows bonuses paid to New York City workers in the financial securities industry.
