Goldman Sachs boosts junior bankers’ pay to over $110k after 95-hour work week complaints
Goldman Sachs has become the last of the Wall Street banking giants to bump up pay for its junior investment bankers, after analysts at the bank sent a presentation to management revealing colossal workloads.
First-year analysts at the bank will now make between $110,000 and $150,000. Upon their second year at the bank, analysts’ base pay will now rise to $125,000.
Goldman’s pay rise measures bring it in line with Wall Street rivals Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Nomura and UBS, who have all made a similar move in the last few months.
The banking giants have been strengthening incentives for younger workers after up to 70 per cent of junior bankers quit their roles due to burnout from severe workloads since the onset of the pandemic.
Earlier in the year, a group of first-year analysts at Goldman leaked a presentation to senior staff stressing they had routinely been working 95-hour weeks over the last year, sometimes rising to 100-hour weeks during busy deal periods.
In the bank’s recent second quarter results call, chief executive David Solomon had implied a pay rise would be on the cards for junior bankers in August.
Solomon had begun a recruitment drive in response as well as automating more junior workloads, while JP Morgan is hiring 190 analysts and associates to support junior staff.
There has been no formal announcement of the pay rise as of yet.
Goldman Sachs has been asked for comment.