Wall Streeters got record bonuses for 2021

Bonuses for Wall Street securities industry workers last year jumped by more than 20 percent over 2020, with the average payout hitting $257,500, according to an annual report from the New York state comptroller.

The average salary including bonuses for New York City's securities workers also increased by 7.7 percent to $438,370 in 2020, nearly five times higher than the $92,315 average in the rest of the private sector.

The record bonuses came as 1.5 million New Yorkers faced a hunger crisis, with many struggling to find enough food to eat amid the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, when many lost their jobs, according to City Harvest, the city's largest food rescue organization.

At least 1 in 4 children, or 462,000 children in New York, also experienced food insecurity, a 46 percent rise amid the pandemic, the organization found.

In 2021, the five biggest investment banks paid out $142 billion in compensation, approximately $18 billion more than in 2020.

But Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and bank bosses warn that this year may be different.

"Wall Street's soaring profits continued to beat expectations in 2021 and drove record bonuses,'' DiNapoli said, but he also noted that recent events — the turbulence in markets and the Russia-Ukraine conflict — are "likely to drive near-term profitability and bonuses lower''.

"In New York, we won't get back to our pre-COVID economic strength until more New Yorkers and more sectors — retail, tourism, construction, the arts and others ??— enjoy similar success," he said Wednesday in his report.

Bank executives have told employees not to expect the same compensation they had last year, as major stock indexes have been down since the start of the year.

Dennis P. Coleman, Goldman Sachs' CFO, told analysts in January that the bonuses were a one-off.

"To the extent the environment in 2022 shifts, that compensation model is highly variable," he said.

New York is the nation's headquarters for the securities industry, employing at least 180,000 people. They make up 5 percent of the private sector in New York and a fifth of all wages, DiNapoli's office said. He estimates that 1 in 9 jobs in the city are connected to the industry.

DiNapoli estimated that the securities industry accounted for 18 percent or $14.9 billion of state tax collections in the state fiscal year of 2021, and 7 percent or $4.7 billion of city tax collections in city fiscal year 2021, which should help New York City beat its expectations for income tax revenue, the report said.

Pay at JPMorgan Chase for investment bankers and traders rose 13 percent. Citigroup paid $3 billion more to its employees in 2021 than in 2020, despite revenue declining slightly from 2020. Goldman Sachs gave 400 partners half a billion dollars in special stock bonuses, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Despite the record bonuses, many securities industry workers have chosen to resign. The number of workers in the security industry was 5 percent smaller than in 2007 and 10 percent below its peak in 2000. The number was largely unchanged from the year before. The total share of jobs has declined from 33 percent in 1990 to 18 percent in 2021.