Wall Street Salaries Rose in 2011 for Most Workers, Survey Finds

Most Wall Street (S5FINL) employees got higher salaries in 2011, with the biggest bumps going to those at boutique banks and alternative asset managers, according to a survey by eFinancialCareers.com.

The online survey of 2,860 financial professionals found that 54 percent received salary increases -- excluding bonus -- and 40 percent reported no change from 2010, according to an e- mailed description of the survey’s findings. Workers at so- called bulge-bracket banks got an average increase of 3 percent, compared with a 14 percent gain for people at boutique banks and a 13 percent raise for those at fund managers.

When year-end bonuses were included, average pay last year fell for workers at companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s investment bank amid declining revenue. As year-end bonuses dropped, some banks raised base salaries that in past years contributed just a fraction of pay for senior employees.

“Historically it’s always been about bonus, and now we’re seeing that salary is another tool that firms have,” Constance Melrose, managing director of eFinancialCareers North America, said in a phone interview. “The less variable component has become more important.”

Melrose didn’t identify the survey respondents’ employers. Bulge-bracket banks include large diversified lenders and investment banks, and boutique banks are smaller, specialized advisory firms, she said. Alternative asset managers typically are hedge funds, Melrose said.

Satisfaction Gauge

The survey, conducted Jan. 2 through Feb. 16, found that 12 percent of respondents were “very satisfied” and 35 percent were “somewhat satisfied” with their 2011 salaries. Thirty- seven percent reported being “very dissatisfied” or “somewhat dissatisfied,” down from 38 percent a year earlier.

While 35 percent of respondents said they plan to change firms this year, 55 percent said that a higher salary would persuade them to stay, according to eFinancialCareers, a unit of New York-based Dice Holdings Inc. (DHX)

“When you ask ‘What would it take for you to stay?’ the No. 1 thing is salary,” Melrose said.

A survey released by eFinancialCareers in February found that more than half of Wall Street employees said their year-end bonus met or exceeded their expectations.

The latest survey, conducted by e-mail, started with 7,194 people and was pared to 3,819 to exclude certain respondents, including those who were students or unemployed. Of those who remained, 2,860 provided salary information, according to eFinancialCareers.

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

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.

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Wall Street Salaries Rose in 2011 for Most Workers

Scott Eells/Bloomberg

A pedestrian walks past the Wall Street street sign in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York.

A pedestrian walks past the Wall Street street sign in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

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March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Female personal care and service workers, which include butlers, house sitters and shoe shiners, earned $1.02 for every $1 their male counterparts made in 2010, according to census data compiled by Bloomberg. That job category was the only one of 265 major occupations where the median female salary in the U.S. exceeded the amount paid to men. The six jobs with the largest gender gap in pay and at least 10,000 men and 10,000 women were in the Wall Street-heavy financial sector. Cali Carlin reports on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness With Margaret Brennan." (Source: Bloomberg)