March 7 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, awarded $67.5 million each to Co-Presidents Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried, boosting their pay 27 percent from the prior year as the company evaded the mortgage losses spreading through the economy.

Cohn, 47, and Winkelried, 48, received 40 percent of their compensation in cash and 60 percent in restricted stock and options, New York-based Goldman said today in a proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The payouts amount to $185,000 per day, including weekends. The median annual income of U.S. households was $48,201 in 2006, the most- recent figures available from the Census Bureau.

The awards ``are not doing anything to take the focus off executive compensation,'' said Laura Thatcher, head of the executive pay practice at the Alston & Bird law firm in Atlanta. ``Those numbers innately are high.''

Goldman set a record for Wall Street in December when it granted Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein $68.5 million in salary and bonuses for 2007, topping the prior year's $54 million award. Goldman's 22 percent jump in profit and 7.9 percent share-price gain last year outpaced Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., which ousted their chief executive officers after posting losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

Prince, O'Neal

Charles O. ``Chuck'' Prince, the former Citigroup CEO, and Stan O'Neal, who lost the top post at Merrill, testified in Washington today at a congressional hearing on executive pay. Lawmakers criticized the two executives, along with Countrywide Financial Corp. chief Angelo Mozilo, for reaping hundreds of millions of dollars while shareholders bore the brunt of writedowns on mortgage assets and credit losses.

``There seem to be two different economic realities operating in our country,'' said Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. ``Most Americans live in a world where economic security is precarious. But our nation's top executives seem to live by a separate set of rules.''

O'Neal resigned from Merrill in October with a $161.5 million package including stock bonuses from prior years. Prince kept about $30 million of stock and options when he stepped down the next month. Mozilo, who collected $121.7 million in 2007 selling Countrywide shares, agreed to forgo $37.5 million in severance and consulting fees in connection with Bank of America Corp.'s proposed takeover of the mortgage lender, which lost 86 percent of its market value in the past year.

Pay for Performance

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. chief Richard Fuld received $40 million for 2007, almost all in the form of restricted stock, the company said in a March 5 SEC filing. Merrill said in November it would pay John Thain, O'Neal's successor, at least $44 million in bonus, salary and stock grants for the year.

O'Neal, 57, defended Merrill's pay practices at today's hearing. ``The compensation of senior management at Merrill was determined through a rigorous and independent process, and consistent with pay levels in the industry,'' he said. Prince, 58, said Citigroup ``worked hard to align management's interests with the interests of shareholders.'' Mozilo, 69, said his company's pay was tied to performance.

Goldman, in its filing today, said its awards were based on the company's record earnings.

``Our financial performance was very strong relative to our core competitor group,'' Goldman said in today's filing. ``Individual performance in fiscal 2007 was exceptional and contributed significantly to our financial results.''

`Public Floggings'

The firm's proxy also showed the company paid Chief Financial Officer David Viniar $57.5 million and awarded $44 million to Edward Forst, who oversees investment management.

Virginia's Tom Davis, the top Republican on the House oversight panel, questioned the utility of attacking CEO pay, saying lower compensation packages aren't likely to help the U.S. economy or consumers who have lost their homes.

``Punishing individual corporate executives with public floggings like this may be a politically satisfying ritual,'' he said. ``In the end, it won't answer the questions that need to be answered about corporate responsibility and economic stability.''

The Federal Reserve today moved to add as much as $200 billion to the banking system over the next month to offset a deepening credit crisis that may have already pushed the U.S. economy into a recession. Banks and securities firms have reported at least $188 billion of writedowns and credit losses since the start of last year, as the impact of surging defaults on subprime mortgages rippled through world financial markets.

The U.S. unexpectedly lost jobs in February for the second consecutive month, according to data released by the Labor Department today in Washington. Payrolls fell by 63,000, the most in five years. The jobless rate dropped to 4.8 percent, reflecting a shrinking labor force as some people gave up looking for work.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 7, 2008 13:28 EST