Robbing MDs to pay associates
It looks like MDs are being sacrificed for the good of associates.
According to a mystery (and therefore possibly spurious) post on yesterday's Deutsche Bank article, associate pay at DB is down only 20% on last year, while MDs are being paid down 80%.
Similar things seem to be happening at BofA, where Ken Lewis yesterday sent a memo with the following message for junior bankers -
I know that every associate in the company is disappointed as we have cut year-end compensation awards across the company...[but] higher-ranking managers with larger incentive targets took progressively larger hits in relation to more junior associates.
VPs and MDs at US firms confirm that associates haven't done badly compared with senior bankers. "There's a big difference between giving a junior guy zero and giving an MD zero," says one. "MDs have stock from previous years and should be able to survive, but for juniors it raises a question of subsistence.
However, one recruiter questions whether associates have been paid well: "Most are too embarrassed to say what they go this year."
