Wall Street bonuses rose 17 per cent last year from a year earlier as the securities industry rebounded from the financial crisis, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.
Financial firms disbursed $20.3 billion compared with $18.4 billion in 2008, Mr DiNapoli's office calculated, basing its estimate on personal income-tax collections.
The assessment does not include stock options or other types of deferred pay. The bonus pool was the second-largest ever, Mr DiNapoli said in his yearly report.
Cash and stock bonuses fell about a third from 2007, he said. New York State's budget deficit is estimated to be $8.2 billion, 10 per cent more than estimated in January, because Wall Street's cash bonuses are less than forecast, Governor David Paterson said February 3rd.
Personal income tax collections in January were $1 billion below the $7.08 billion the state projected.
"It would be preferable to have predictable growth and profitability," Mr DiNapoli said today.
"With New York depending on the sector for budget health, we need Wall Street to be profitable."
The average bonus for the industry was $123,000 last year, the comptroller said. Wall Street added 3,900 jobs through December and Mr DiNapoli said he expects that trend to continue.
He said the increase in tax revenue from higher bonuses won't solve New York's budget problems.
The size of the bonus pool was harder to determine because many firms paid a larger percentage of bonuses in stock and deferred compensation, Mr DiNapoli said in the statement.
Wall Street accounted for 24 per cent of the wages paid to New York City workers in 2008 and 5 per cent of the jobs. In the most profitable years, high levels of compensation, corporate earnings and capital gains from Wall Street-related activity accounted for as much as 20 per cent of the state's total tax revenue and 12 per cent of the city's collections, Mr DiNapoli's office has said.
Bloomberg