Are technologists massively overworked and massively underpaid compared to bankers?

People in investment banks work long hours. This is notoriously the case in the front office, where 4.15am starts and crazy all-nighters are not abnormal.

New research from the 'University of Hertfordshire' suggests the City's long hours culture has been entrenched for around 200 years.

But what about technologists? And people working at financial services tech vendor companies? Tech vendors are generally thought to offer a better work-life balance, but this may be apocryphal.

In a wide-ranging interview Wall Street and Technology, Shawn Edwards, chief technology officer for Bloomberg, suggests that IT professionals are expected to work very long hours.

"They're often the ones working through the night. They're the ones who are kept up coding and thinking about getting to market, and that's a huge factor of what we do - getting our ideas out to market first and responding to our customers fast," Edwards declared.

This is sad, technologists working for vendors aren't paid nearly as well as corporate financiers working for investment banks.

Recruiters say salaries at vendor firms are 45-80k for project managers and business analysts, and 55-80k for developers and integration specialists.

What's more bonuses for technologists usually come in at just 5-10% of salary, suggests James Richmond, sales director at IT in finance recruiters Cititec.

"There's something of a skills-shortage in the vendor space, particularly around Murex," he says. "In the last couple of years, vendors have successfully recruited from banks, but these people usually gravitate back again when recruitment in banks picks up again."