Back and middle office staff shortchanged on salary increases
People in the front office are doing ok. In the past few months, UBS, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and quite possibly JPMorgan have all increased their basic salaries by up to 100%. However, as far as we can make out, this policy hasn't been extended to the middle and back office.
Instead, operations staff in particular seem to have been granted distinctly measly pay rises. According to one recruiter, some operations staff at BofA Merrill Lynch received a raise of 2% recently. However, this hasn't been confirmed by the bank, which didn't immediately return a call on the subject.
Most operations recruiters agree that back office staff aren't getting the kind of big salary increases given to the front office.
"Some banks have got pay freezes in place, and operations jobs are still being lost to offshoring," says Mike Hartwell at recruiters Hartwell Buck.
"Organisations will increase salaries slightly, but only a case by case basis when it is necessary to do so in order to hire," says the head of operations at another recruitment firm.
