Time to break out the tiny violins! Sure, $1.6 million for the year is a lot of money—hell, $160,000 is a lot of money—but Wall Street Journal's Dennis Berman reveals that one financial firm "paymaster" (the guy who sets salaries and compensation at a firm) says of the amount given to a mid-career investment banker, "It's not a lot of money." Damn all those other investment banks for screwing over the economy and sending us spiraling into the financial crisis because only taking in $380,000 in after-tax money SUCKS! more ›

The city's Independent Budget Office says that Wall Street pay has gone down a considerable amount. According to the Post, "The IBO reported that securities-industry wages averaged $311,279 in 2009, down 21.5 percent from $396,370 the previous year, and down 24.6 percent from $412,915 in 2007." Oh, so they're still making bank? Pffft. more ›

A former Bear Stearns banker is suing his former firm and its new owners, JP Morgan Chase, for a bonus he feels is owed to him despite the firm's collapse last year. Now that the storm has settled over bonuses going out to employees of failed Wall Street giants, Gary Reback is suing for $2 million in bonus money and in additional $1.1 million for a severance offer he says was inexplicably pulled off the table in the eleventh hour. The Scarsdale man was one of the top twenty highest paid employees at Bear in 2007, when he earned a bonus of $4 million. His lawyer told the Post, "Gary had nothing to do with losses. He traded different products completely outside the subprime-mortgage mess. They offered him a severance and now they're reneging—it's shocking, bad faith behavior." more ›

Maybe financial executives on Wall Street can stop whining: Based on banks' recent profits, that many bankers will be seeing sweet paychecks this year. Sure, layoffs may have thinned the ranks a little, but the NY Times reports, "The average pay for those who remain — rank-and-file workers whose earnings are not affected by government-imposed limits — appears to be rebounding... In [JPMorgan Chase]’s trading and investment banking unit, if revenue stays at first-quarter levels, workers are on track to earn an average of $509,524 over the year. That figure was $345,147 in 2006." One recruiter said there haven't been "huge changes in the way people are talking about compensation. Wall Street is being realistic. You have to retain your human capital," while an analyst was more blunt, "Like everything on Wall Street, they’re starting to sin again. As you see a recovery, you’ll see everybody’s compensation beginning to rise." more ›