Wall Street Bonuses Outpace Market Gains by Over 350 Percent

Annual bonuses paid in 2007 to New York City-based employees of the seven largest financial firms headquartered in the city are estimated at $33.7 billion. From 2002 through 2007, bonuses increased 238.78 percent, or 3.57 (356.95%) times faster than the change in the S&P 500. For the same period the benchmark of stock market performance rose 588.54 points (66.89%).

And the $23.4 billion difference between the 2002 and 2007 bonuses amounts to a $39,759,405
increase for every one point gain of the S&P 500 for the five-year period.

Not a bad day's pay!

S&P 500 Returns and Bonuses 2002 - 2007
Date	S&P Close	S&P 500 Annual Return	Annual Bonus ($Billion)
2007	1,468.36	3.53%	$33.2
2006	1,418.3	13.62%	$33.9
2005	1,248.29	3.00%	$25.7
2004	1,211.92	8.99%	$18.6
2003	1,111.92	26.38%	$15.8
2002	879.82	-23.37%	$9.8
Note: Bonus data from Office of the State Deputy Comptroller. Annual returns based on S&P 500 daily closes from finance.yahoo.com.

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Posted March 24, 2008.