The average bonus paid to Wall Street employees shot up 15 percent last year to $164,000 — the most since the economic collapse in 2008, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli reported Wednesday.
The sharp increase in bonuses came despite profits for the industry falling 30 percent, to $16.7 billion.
Workers were able to realize a jump in the much-anticipated bonus payouts thanks to compensation they deferred from previous years, DiNapoli said.
The total bonus pool swelled to $26.7 billion.
Despite the drop in profits, Wall Street revenues remained “strong” when compared to previous years’ receipts, DiNapoli said.
Wall Street has 165,200 jobs — about 12.6 percent of total payrolls — since the Great Recession.
The industry generated about $3.8 billion in city taxes in fiscal 2013 and $10.3 billion in state taxes.
“Whatever anyone’s opinion of Wall Street, it is still an important part of the city’s economy,” said DiNapoli, speaking in Manhattan in front of the Association for a Better New York.
New York City budget officials did not have much faith in Wall Street companies continuing to dole out big bonuses as city leaders planned on having less tax revenue in their 2014-15 budget.
The estimate for 2014 was for a 5 percent decline in bonus payouts.
But based on the current figures, the Big Apple can bank on an estimated $100 million in new tax revenue next year, DiNapoli added.
Wall Street still remains a very lucrative place to work. According to the Comptroller’s report, for fiscal year 2012 — the most recent data — the average Wall Street salary, including bonuses, was $360,700, more than five times greater than the rest of the private sector.
The figure represents 22 percent of all private-sector wages paid in New York City in 2012, even though only 5 percent of the private-sector jobs, throughout the whole city, are on Wall Street.