Bankers’ salaries have come in for a lot of bad press of late, and the following are the highest in the whole industry.
Salary benchmarking site Emolument.com analyzed data collected from 5,400 finance professionals working in the United Kingdom. To those familiar with the finance industry the results may not be particularly surprising, but it may help those driven by financial rewards choose a finance specialism.
Certain specialisms pay far more than others at MD level
Although salaries for analysts are fairly consistent across all specialisms, pay packets differ wildly by the time you reach MD level. Those who become MDs in Structuring, Trading and M&A can earn nearly twice as much as those in Fund Management and Institutional Sales.
Investment bankers dominate the top spots, with those in Structuring earning over $1,000,000, Trading $928,000 and M&A $879,000. In contrast Fund Managers earn $467,000 and Institutional Sales $507,000.
Analysts in Structuring and Trading earn around 60,000, before their pay skyrockets when they reach MD level. This massive increase is due in part to the fact that bonuses grow significantly as bankers progress through the ranks, with analysts receiving 10-20% of their base salary in bonuses and MDs receiving up to 150% as a bonus.
Graduates should check bonus payments when choosing a specialism
This is particularly important for young graduates to consider as they look to decide on an area of finance specialism in which to build a career. At the analyst level it may look as though all specialisms are created equal, but that is certainly not the case later on in your career.
“The golden age of bonuses may be well and truly over, with a narrowing pay gap between bankers and other jobs such as asset managers or consultants, bankers are still by far the best paid employees in Europe,”:said Alice Leguay, COO and co-founder at Emolument. “With public perception at an all-time low, the prospect of a fat paycheck probably helps make up for the social stigma of being a banker in our post-2008 world.”
Finance as a sector is fairly well remunerated on average, but as the data shows, there are huge discrepancies between different specialisms which should be considered when planning a career path.
