Commiserations about your 2009 compensation if you work in the back office, or in finance

Back office professionals do not make as much money as front office bankers. The back office is not a place to work if you want to get rich relatively quickly. Nor is it a place to work if you like to have your ego massaged on a regular basis.

All this has long been true. This year, however, back office bankers may find themselves even less well-rewarded relative to the front office than in the past.

Squeezed by the UK government's bonus tax, anecdotal evidence suggests some banks are trimming compensation pots for low profile back and middle office roles rather than making big cuts in the front office.

"At senior levels, back office staff are taking the pain proportionately with the front office staff. But more junior back office staff will find their pay disproportionately squeezed," says Jon Terry, head of reward at PricewaterhouseCooopers.

It doesn't help that most middle and back office staff haven't shared the generous salary increases of 100% or more allocated to front office bankers over the past year. The most recent Morgan McKinley study showed pay for the average middle or back office role in the City actually fell marginally over the past 12 months.

Brad Hintz, banking analyst at Sanford Bernstein, says pressure to keep comp ratios low will also have exerted pressure on pay for people in the back office: "Relatively fungible employees in areas like operations and accounting will feel the effects most as comp ratios are brought down," he predicts.

Nor may the situation get better any time soon. If leverage restrictions, capital ratio requirements and the Volcker Rule serve to reduce margins in future, operations staff may find their pay squeezed even further.