Wall Street increases bonuses again. I had a banana peel for breakfast.
From Washington Post:
Wall Street, helped by improving profits, is on track to pay employees as much as, or even more than, it did in the pre-crisis days. So far this year, the top six U.S. banks have set aside $74 billion to pay their employees, up from $60 billion in the corresponding period last year.
The increase in set-asides for employee pay has raised the ire of Washington, where lawmakers denounced financial leaders for returning to old habits and vowed to enact measures governing executive compensation.
Is it me, or does it seem like banks and financial firms look for any excuse to increase employees and management pay. In contrast, I’ve worked at companies where I busted my ass for years and got a 10% pay raise. I’ve had to LEAVE companies to move up on the corporate ladder and get considerable pay increases.
These people produce NOTHING, but play with large numbers. Those firms seem to be intent on increasing the reality of a salary in the marketplace by making obscene salaries the norm.
While I don’t work at these companies (I actually went to college and studied a profession that requires me to do more than make a few calls and shift a few papers), I suspect some of the conversations go something like this:
“Hey, Bob, I saw you cleaned your desk this month. I’m raising your bonus pay by $300,000!
“Hi Sheryl. It seems you’ve brought in four clients accounts that increased our investment capital by $90,000. We’re giving you a $250,000 raise!
Now, I could be completely ignorant on this, but HOW do you explain this rush to incent? There are millions out of work across this country because of the reckless actions of these people. Their actions have created this result. Whatever results they’ve created in the last 1/2 year, it can’t possibly make up for the massive depletion of capital they were responsible for the previous three years or more.
In my opinion, none of these people deserve one cent more until everyone who’s lives they’ve destroyed are able to create new lives, maybe with the help of a loan from them. Until that time, they should live the lives the rest of us do:
– Work hard, and when there’s real, true legitimate increases in revenue (not projections based on money that may or may not exist - or is the result of tax payer funds) then you get a pay increase…of 10%.
– Stop telling the rest of us you NEED this $300,000 bonus increase because your Summer home’s deck is only 1600 square feet and it is dwarfed by those of your neighbors.
– Live within your means (i.e. your “MEANS” do not mean personal expenditures of over $100,000 a month and a mortgage of $12,000 a month).
If you cannot do that, well, maybe your bank doesn’t deserve tax payer bailout money. Maybe your bank needs to have a special increase in corporate taxes based on the percentage of salary and bonus increases.
Want healthcare reform paid for? Increases in social security and medicare? THESE firms will be your cash cow unless they stop acting like arrogant, callous little bitches who have NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE VALUE OF A DOLLAR.
