Wall Street Bonuses Surged To A Record $49.2 Billion Pool Last Year

Bonuses for Wall Street employees jumped to a record $49.2 billion overall pool, New York’s state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Thursday morning, which he attributed to strong trading activity and a 30% rise in Wall Street’s profits.

KEY FACTS

The $49.2 billion pool is 9% higher than the pool for 2024, DiNapoli said.

The average bonus paid to securities industry employees was $246,900, which is 6% higher than the year prior.

“Wall Street saw strong performance for much of last year, despite all of the ongoing domestic and international upheavals,” ⁠DiNapoli said⁠ in a release Thursday morning, adding the higher Wall Street profits are “good for our state and city budgets, which are reliant on the industry’s significant tax contributions.”

Though this year's bonus pool is the highest on record, the 2006 pool adjusted for inflation edges it out at $53.7 billion in today’s dollars.

Securities industry employment edged down slightly to 198,200 in 2025, DiNapoli said, adding financial sector job growth has been faster in other parts of the country, though New York still has the nation’s highest share of securities industry employees at 17.9%.

DiNapoli estimated the bonuses would generate $199 million more in state income tax revenue and $91 million more for New York City over the previous year, but he said tax revenue may fall short of expectations as Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget assumed Wall Street bonuses would rise 25.9%.

Read the full story on Forbes: By Conor Murray https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2026/03/26/wall-street-bonuses-surged-to-a-record-492-billion-pool-last-year/

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