Bonuses To Be Bumped Down*

By John Carney

This Options Group, which tracks all things pay and hiring related on the Street, thinks bonuses will decline as much as 5% in 2007. This would be the first bonus cut in 5 years. Usually more concrete discussions about year-end bonuses start to happen in October and the potential pool becomes clearer. Our current intelligence on this is skeptical: it’s really too early to tell.
Watch the LBO market, though. If those buyouts fall apart, it could indicate deeper problems that will hit your bottom line.
Credit Woes Threaten Bonuses On Wall Street [New York Post]

Comments (7)

  1. 1
    Posted by Anonymous | August 23, 2007 at 4:42 PM

    5% lower than last year, when bonuses were 15-25% higher aint bad.

  2. 2
    Posted by Anon | August 23, 2007 at 4:49 PM

    5% reduction is a joke. Trading desk bonus pool is already gone at many banks; M&A bonus pool will be gone as banks try to pay breakup fees to get out of commitment letters for hung deals; and hedge fund bonus pools are materially reduced as well.
    In 2 months, people are going to be worried about job loss–not bonus pool size–and I’m not talking about job losses at mortgage origination units in Oshkosh Wisconsin.

  3. 3
    Posted by Anon | August 23, 2007 at 4:50 PM

    5% reduction is a joke. Trading desk bonus pool is already gone at many banks; M&A bonus pool will be gone as banks try to pay breakup fees to get out of commitment letters for hung deals; and hedge fund bonus pools are materially reduced as well.
    In 2 months, people are going to be worried about job loss–not bonus pool size–and I’m not talking about job losses at mortgage origination units in Oshkosh Wisconsin.

  4. 4
    Posted by Anonymous | August 23, 2007 at 4:58 PM

    Bonuses for fund accounting are expected to remain flat

  5. 5
    Posted by Anonymous | August 23, 2007 at 5:12 PM

    still got another quarter left of turnaround time including the holidays. i don’t think it will be as bad as everyone thinks.

  6. 6
    Posted by unwashed, uneducated local | August 24, 2007 at 8:12 AM

    my bonus gets paid every quarter and we had a record july and on track for a record august. junior traders here (less than 5 years on board) have gotten 100Gs, in q1, 100 in q2, most likely get 150 in sept.
    all of you ivy league, tier 1 guys and gals need to think of it as wealth transfer or income re-distribution from yourselves to folks who simply traded better than you did – gasp!!! – or, are smarter than you? couldnt be, could it? PS – oh, and I get to work around 8 and go home by 4.30 every day.

  7. 7
    Posted by Anonymous | August 24, 2007 at 9:13 AM

    who let unwashed into the club? someone have that riff-raff removed.

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