| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) employees are getting about $1 million in compensation and benefits each, according to the bank's second-quarter earnings. Compensation and benefit costs were $6.65 billion, up 47% from the second quarter of 2008. During the conference call Tuesday morning, CFO David Viniar said that Goldman's staff was 29,400. Reuters breaks down the figures: "The bank set aside an average $226,156 per employee in the quarter, up from $129,200 a year ago. If the quarterly figure is annualized, it comes to $904,624 per employee." Reuters reports that the figure will draw criticism from lawmakers because the bank had accepted TARP funds and government support, not to mention that unemployment is still on the rise and the recession is still on. Why? Mostly because not everyone is getting $1 million. Things don't always break out even. Reuters reports: Gustavo Dolfino, president of New York-based headhunter WhiteRock Group, estimated compensation packages could top around $10 million or $11 million, and will be just for a handle of traders that structured deals that made money. "The biggest bonuses will go specifically to the foreign exchange and commodities traders, that are the people accountable for the kind of profits that Goldman is doing," Dolfino said. "People at investment banking will not make a lot of money, and people at middle market sales, and M&A will make a little bit more of money." Not that there is much lawmakers can do now that Goldman has paid back TARP, but they like to talk.The compensation figures include cash salaries, estimated year-end bonuses, equity awards and other items such as payroll taxes, severance costs and employee benefits, Viniar said on a conference call. Viniar added that funds set aside for compensation could be lower in the second half of the year because the economy is still shaky. In fact, Viniar said the bank was still "way far away from out of the woods" and it is still going to manage its capital conservatively in case the economy deteriorates. Don't you wish all companies could manage their capital so conservatively at the moment? - Maria Woehr Goldman Sachs reports $3.4B in earnings
 Deal Video
    Community
 Elsewhere on The Deal.comDealwatchThe Deal MagazineCorporate Dealmaker
The Deal VideoCategories
Blog roll
Archives
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
