Raises for Wall Street « Main Street

Raises for Wall Street

Oh, look. Another story about bailed-out financial corporations planning to give raises or extra bonuses to employees.

For some Citigroup investment bankers and traders, the changes could mean salary increases of as much as 50 percent, depending on their position. Legal and risk management employees, as well as those in the credit card and consumer banking units, whose pay is typically skewed toward salary, rather than bonuses, are expected to receive smaller increases.

Citigroup executives said the changes were aimed at retaining employees. Some Citigroup workers have already left for small, boutique investment banks or large rivals that are not so beholden to the government.

It’s not getting any more ok just because more of them are planning to do it, or because it’s about making pay come more as salary and less as bonuses, or because “Total industry pay would still be below the record levels of 2007, but only a bit.”

And do the employees getting raises include, like, the receptionists and custodians? You know, the ones who didn’t make the decisions that caused the financial crisis and who don’t earn enough to begin with?