So you thought Wall Street's days of surreal compensation structures had become forgotten because of the bailouts and near collapse of all the majors last Fall. Think again. Today we had news that Morgan Stanley has set aside 72% of total revenues from the 2nd quarter for employee compensation. And this in a Q where Morgan Stanley reported a net loss to shareholders of $1.3 billion, and a $159 million loss from continuing operations.
This 72% figure compares to a decade-long street average of 48% of revenues being set aside for pay, bonuses and benefits. Bloomberg has a nice compensation breakdown comparing Morgan Stanley to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
First-Half Revenue, Compensation and Head Count from Bloomberg:
Revenue Comp Employees Comp/Employee
Morgan Stanley $8.36 bln $5.91 bln 62,215 $95,009
Goldman Sachs $23.2 bln $11.4 bln 29,400 $386,429
JPMorgan $15,7 bln $6.01 bln 25,783 $232,983