It was a poll that caused a stir on Wall Street: A few months ago, a group of young Goldman Sachs investment bankers gave a damning verdict on their working conditions.

The results, summarized in a Powerpoint presentation, spread rapidly on the Internet.

The respondents stated that they had recently worked an average of 105 hours a week.

On a scale of one to ten for satisfaction with Goldman Sachs as an employer, they only named a two.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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They reported ailing physical and mental health and put the probability of still being with the company in six months, under unchanged conditions, at 35 percent.

"I'm in a really dark place mentally," said one of the interviewees.

Another quote from the presentation: "I didn't expect a job here that goes from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, but also not that it regularly becomes five in the morning."

The inventory of disillusioned Goldman bankers revived the discussion about the harsh working environment in investment banks.

She suggested that not much has changed, despite Goldman Sachs and other banks having announced various initiatives to ensure a better work-life balance among their young bankers.

Such promises were made after the death of a Bank of America intern Merrill Lynch in 2013 who had previously worked 72 hours straight.

At least $ 100,000 as a starting salary

The Goldman survey put the industry under pressure again. The banks are trying to accommodate their employees in two ways: on the one hand, with renewed promises to reduce the workload and to ensure a balance. On the other hand, there have been increasing numbers of announcements in the past few weeks that the annual salaries for young professionals will be increased significantly. A lower limit of $ 100,000 seems to be establishing itself as a starting salary.

To this amount, for example, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and the New York branch of Deutsche Bank have increased the salaries of analysts in the first year of employment, i.e. the category of employees from the Goldman survey.

So far, the salary for the young analysts in these banks has been $ 85,000.

Earlier this week, American media reported that Goldman Sachs is outperforming its competitors and is planning to raise analyst salaries from $ 85,000 to $ 110,000 in the first year, an increase of nearly 30 percent.

For analysts in the second year, there should be $ 125,000 in the future.

Saturday work only in exceptional cases

In all banks, these sums are only basic salaries.

In addition, there is usually an annual bonus, which can be very generous.

According to the Wall Street Prep organization, which offers training for investment bankers, analysts in New York who previously received a base salary of $ 85,000 could expect to earn $ 160,000 including a bonus, almost double that amount.

The now announced salary increases should be bearable for the Wall Street banks.

You have recently shown brilliant results, especially in investment banking, which benefits from good business with advising on mergers and acquisitions as well as advising on IPOs.

Beyond higher salaries, Goldman CEO David Solomon promised to improve working conditions after the survey became public.

In the future, the company wants to do more to ensure that its “Saturday rule” is adhered to.

According to this, junior bankers should only be allowed to work on Fridays after nine in the evening and all day on Saturdays with sparingly used exemptions.

The survey, of course, painted a completely different picture.

Solomon also said it plans to hire additional staff and redistribute or automate work to ease the burden.

JPMorgan has also announced plans to hire more junior bankers.

Paid vacation travel and no work after midnight

Jane Fraser, who has headed Citigroup since February, has encouraged all of her staff to set “healthy boundaries”, precisely because of changes in everyday work caused by pandemics: “The blurring of the lines between home and work and the relentlessness of working days in the pandemic have made us feel good harmed. ”She appealed to her employees to limit meetings outside of“ traditional working hours ”and to actually use their vacation days. She also gave the entire workforce a day off in May.

The small Californian investment bank Houlihan Lokey even promised to pay its employees a vacation trip in April. A list of trips was compiled for employees to choose from, including beach and ski vacations. In addition, new working rules have been introduced that will apply to analysts, among others. According to this, work should no longer be carried out after midnight without a special permit, and a “protected” day in the week that is specified in the respective teams should remain off-duty.

Employees at the Jefferies investment bank also recently received gifts. You could choose from three options: a Peloton fitness bike with a subscription, a digital fitness mirror or a package with an iPad and various other Apple products. Jefferies described the gifts as a bonus to successful work "in challenging circumstances." Other banks rely on cash to keep their employees happy, be it in the form of higher salaries or in the form of bonuses. Credit Suisse announced in April a one-time “Lifestyle Allowance” of $ 20,000 for its bankers.