LOL, if they are lucky. As I have stated before, little trickles down past the VP/Head of desk & MD levels. Period. Don't matter if you are an associate who worked on one of the biggest deals of the year, it has little effect on your bonus. This is not 1980s or 1990s anymore, all the big Wall Street firms, even most of the smaller boutique ones are on a cost cutting rampage regardless of growth. The top execs are not dumb, they see the overabundance of college kids willing to fall prey to the "dream". Labor is cheaper today, so why pay up? Unless you show direct performance and revenue/profit generation, you get little even if the firm does great. Now if your department does great, like a specialized trading desk or IB division, then you get more. Also depends on how much input your Managing Director has and whether he feels generous and likes you. It's a different structure nowdays, even the big hitter firms hold a rat race environment. Good advice coming out of school when looking at Wall Street jobs: Go for boutique IBs and B/Ds not the big firms. P.S. Correct me if I am wrong but bonuses are taxed at a near 50% rate.
Mine is usually taxed at around 40%. Ouch! (Lets see, 40% of 850.00..hummmmm). I do think it varies a little but the tax bite hurts. jim
Wow Those HUGE numbers you see the head pigs get, those are taxed at the same rate if not higher. Often they simply get stock & options as part of the deal. So they do this. Since actually cashing out the stock & options while at the firm would cost them about half that money, they go work for the Federal Government after they retire. Can anyone guess why? Anyway, I do not have much reaction toward these numbers, it's expected. Stating that Wall Street bonuses hit a new record high is like stating that organized crime has a lot of cash lying around. NO SH*T!!! Consider what firms you are talking about and the sh*t they get away with. It's just more paper pushing games, that's all. All that money has to go somewhere. And for the most part, you're not talking about happy individuals here. To quote a buddy of mine when I asked him why he did not want to advance up the IB ladder to become a VP or MD "F**k that, I don't want to do this sh*t for the rest of my life, look at the big wigs, they don't lead good lives"