DiNapoli: Wall St. Bonuses Fell 44% in '08

ALBANY-Record losses in the securities industry led to a 44% drop in the Wall Street bonus pool for 2008, state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says in an estimate released Wednesday. He warns that a decline of that magnitude “will ripple through the regional economy” and mean major losses in tax revenues for the city and state.

“The securities industry has already lost tens of thousands of jobs and the industry is still continuing to write off toxic assets,” says DiNapoli in a release. “It’s painfully obvious that 2009 will probably be another difficult year for the industry.”

DiNapoli’s office estimates that the bonus pool paid by the securities industry to its employees in New York City totaled $18.4 billion in ’08–based on personal income tax collections and other factors–including industry revenue and expense trends. This represents a 44% drop compared with the $32.9-billion pool seen in 2007. The $14.5-billion decline is the largest on record in absolute dollars and the largest percentage decline in more than 30 years. However, the size of the bonus pool is still the sixth largest on record, according to DiNapoli.