The average Wall Street employee took home $422,500 in total compensation in 2017! This is the most since the financial crisis of 2008. Compensation includes salaries and bonuses, both of which were up last year. The only thing that hasn’t returned to pre-collapse levels is the number of people working on Wall Street. That remains 6 percent lower than it was before the collapse. Trump has kept his promises of lowering corporate taxes while easing regulation on Wall Street. It is the friendliest atmosphere for business in more than a decade.
Wall Street is swimming in it
Wall Streeters made 13 percent more this year than they did last year (per the average employee), and the average bonus was $184,200 (which is 17 percent higher than in 2016 and by far outstrips the average American salary). Also, during the first half of 2017, the industry’s pre-tax profits soared to $13.7 billion — which is an 11 percent increase from 2016.
The rest of us
While Wall Street employees have reaped the gains, average income for most U.S. employees has completely stalled. For instance, the median income in the U.S. in 2016 was $59,039. That’s more than seven times less than the average Wall-Streeter! Meanwhile, the average wage gains rose last month only a meager 10 cents, which just put it in line with inflation (which eats away the value of the dollar). Even in New York City, where salaries tend to be high, one-quarter of the people on Wall Street earn more than $250,000 while only 2.5 percent of the rest of the City earns that much.
Takeaway
So, whereas Wall Street once had to be bailed out by taxpayers, they have now more than recovered and are earning massive amounts of money for their services as compared to the average American. While it is true that the financial sector is an important part of the economy, is it really reasonable for these workers to be paid seven times more than the average middle-class American employee? The industry accounts for less than 5 percent of all private-sector jobs in New York City, where it is based, but it is responsible for more than 20 percent of all private-sector wages. Wall Street wages have risen steadily and year-after-year since 2009, so it is not too far-fetched to reckon that these Wall Streeter wages still haven’t plateaued. Salaries may rise even higher into the stratosphere next year, and the year after that, too.
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