By Meagan Clark -
Wall Street banks are raising salaries for junior employees to improve working conditions and Goldman Sachs is helpins set the pace with a planned 20 percent hike. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. NYSE:GS, as well as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. NYSE:JPM, Citigroup Inc. NYSE:C, Bank of America Corp. NYSE:BAC and Morgan Stanley NYSE:MS have decided to or are seriously considering upping pay for junior bankers, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In recent years, the firms, suffering blows to their reputations and recruiting success after the financial crisis, have faced pressure to pay junior employees more and cut down their long hours. The death of a 21-year-old Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern in London last year, due to an epileptic seizure that his working three days straight could have brought on and pushed the issue to the forefront of Wall Street.
Goldman Sachs will increase entry-level salaries for U.S.-based analysts by about 20 percent next year, bumping salaries to $85,000 from $70,000. Bank of America is boosting pay by the same percentage for its junior investment-banking and trading employees next year, and J.P. Morgan and Citigroup are considering a similar pay raise, WSJ reported.
Last month, Morgan Stanley said it will raise junior bankers and capital markets workers’ salaries by as much as 25 percent, the New York Times reported.
According to Goldman Sachs, the raise is to keep the firm competitive among graduating college seniors, who likely receive more than one offer in finance.