Wall Street Companies are planning to pay a record compensation and benefits to their employees, a figure which can be as high as $144 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The payout will cover a number of benefits including covering bonuses, premiums and stock options for the company executives and employees. It is estimated to be upwards of four percent from what was paid in the year earlier; which, in itself, was a huge amount of $139 billion, according to the premier financial daily.
The newspaper undertook a study of 35 Wall Street firms, including banks, investment banks, hedge funds and money managing groups, among others. It found that 29 of the institutions were expecting a rise in revenues by up to three percent, from $433 billion to $448 billion.
The Journal reported that the companies earned a total profit of around $61 billion in 2010, which is 20 percent lower than the profit of $82 billion in 2006 when compensations at these institutions surged 23 percent.
Wall Street is blamed for the major financial crisis of 2008 that threatened the economic health of the country and started a chain reaction in other parts of the world. The global economy has not yet recovered from that shock despite trillions spent by governments all over the world to spark growth. US government bailed out the Wall Street companies with tax dollars and imposed strict guidelines about pay and bonuses.
Despite the enactment of the guidelines, companies continue giving benefits as they the rules have not established any binding compensation caps and are also devoid of any prohibition for specific forms of payment for incentive compensation.
