Less than half of Wall Street employees expect bigger bonus

Fewer than half of Wall Street employees expect a bigger bonus this year than in 2012, as the biggest investment banks have cut the amount they allocate for pay, according to an eFinancialCareers.com survey.
About 42% of the 1,427 people who responded to the online survey said they think their year-end bonus will rise, while 30% expect the same amount, the job search website said in a statement last Wednesday. Ten percent expect a decline, while 18% are unsure.
U.S. employees are less optimistic than those abroad, where at least half of the respondents in each region expect a larger payout. Sixty-one percent of respondents who work in the Middle East and 50% in Singapore anticipate a bigger bonus.
The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the investment bank divisions of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley all reduced compensation costs for the first nine months of the year by at least 3%, compared with 2012. The cuts were made even as revenue climbed at each of the three businesses.
Half of those responding globally said the only way to get a larger bonus is to move to another firm, according to eFinancialCareers, a unit of Dice Holdings Inc. The survey was conducted in September and received responses from front-office and support staff.
The survey was offered in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, the U.K., the U.S. and the Middle East, with 4,642 global respondents.
In Singapore, finance professionals expect their basic salaries to increase in 2014, with half of the respondents indicating that this increase will come in the next six months, the survey showed. Within this group, 76% anticipate a pay rise of as much as 10%.
(Bloomberg News)