ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – The average bonus paid to securities industry employees in New York City grew 2 percent last year to nearly $173,000, New York’s state comptroller reported Wednesday.
That’s the largest average Wall Street bonus since the 2008 financial crisis, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said, according to his office’s analysis, though the industry was slightly less profitable last year while adding 2,300 jobs.
“One area that anecdotally we keep hearing is a growth sector is compliance,” DiNapoli said.
The securities industry has been profitable for six consecutive years and had 167,800 workers in New York City in 2014, the report said. That’s still 11 percent less than before the crisis.
Pretax profits last year for broker/dealer operations of some 200 New York Stock Exchange members – the traditional measure of profitability for the securities industry – totaled $16 billion last year, down $700 million from 2013.