Wall Street Salaries May Rise as Bonuses Drop: report

Base salaries on Wall Street may double as a result of the public backlash over excessive bonuses, according to a report.

Alan Johnson, the founder of compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates believes employees who earned $250,000 in base salary may see it rise to $500,000 or $600,000, according to a Bloomberg report.

Base salaries on Wall Street range from $80,000 to $300,000 with bonuses added on which could reach into the millions of dollars, he said.

“Regulators are either requiring it or imploring people to do it,” Johnson told Bloomberg. “Their belief is that part of the reason that firms got in trouble was they had an excessive focus on bonuses because salaries were too low to live on.”

He believes compensation will drop by 20 percent from 2008 levels because of weak business fundamentals, the report states.