Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Goldman Sachs bonuses

Goldman Sachs CEO lloyd Blankfein has settled for a bonus of $9 mn this year, way below the $69 mn he made in 2007 and the $100 mn that he could have claimed but for the tide of popular anger against bankers. The firm chose to keep its bonus pool at around $16 bn which works out to $500,00 per employee. The earlier betting was that bonus plus salary would hit the $1 mn mark.

The top five employees of GS will all get $9 mn but others down the line are taking home more. But I think it's the top execs pay and the total bonus pool that matters from the PR angle- and my sense is that what GS has done has calmed down tempers a bit or at least kept them from spiralling out of control.

Not that CEO Blankfein will starve- as one commentator puts it, his bonus is down to the utterly enormous from the utterly obscene. And one doesn't exactly see a flight of talent of GS or elsewhere because of the reduced bonuses.

No comments: