A survey published in London shows how happy bankers are with the bonuses they received last month. The results suggest that a sizeable number among them need to find other reasons for job satisfaction that just the size of the paycheck.
March is the month when bankers receive their bonus. This year, a substantial share among them is far from happy, according to the results of a survey by «Emolument», covering 1,640 bankers based in London.
The least happy are the staff of Deutsche Bank, according to the result of the survey (see table below). Every second among Credit Suisse (CS) bankers also is «unhappy» with the bonus received, while investment bankers at arch-rival UBS are marginally happier.
The figures for CS and Deutsche Bank don’t come as a surprise, given the performance of their respective employers and the bonus cuts for the lower- and middle-ranking staff. Which, in the case of CS, stand in stark contrast to the bonus payments to the executive, which remained extraordinary, despite some last-minute cuts to appease shareholders.
Substantial Spread at Deutsche
The spread between happy and unhappy staff is particularly strong at Deutsche, with every fourth employee expressing satisfaction about the variable compensation, which was the fourth-biggest number among the surveyed banks. This suggests that there is larger-than-average discrepancy between smaller and larger bonus.
Fat pay checks for the top executive and smaller bonuses for the lower ranks tend to increase the disquiet among banking staff, for obvious reasons. This is particularly poignant at banks such as CS, where losses have mounted and the management reacted with job cuts.
A Case for Transparency
The survey also shows a surprisingly large number of banking staff who do not know whether they ought to be satisfied or not. «Emolument» says that this is due to a lack of transparency about the distribution of bonuses among the banks and concludes that an increase in transparency might lead to a higher level of satisfaction.
