By: Randy Barber
Associate bankers at Lazard are now the highest paid on Wall Street after a raise brought their base salary to $200,000. The move is the latest in a frenzy of pay hikes across the Street that have been taking place since this spring, Business Insider reported.
Base pay for Lazard associates will jump to $200,000 from $150,000 for first-year associates, to $225,000 from $175,000 for second-year associates and to $250,000 from $200,000 for third-year associates, according to Insider.
NY Post reported: At the beginning of the summer, first-year bankers at firms including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan made $85,000. Now, junior bankers at all major firms make at least six figures.
Over the past few months, firms all across Wall Street hiked pay for junior as banks including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have posted record earnings as the economy comes roaring back to life, NY Post reported.
Some of the major firms that issued pay hikes include: Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Guggenheim Securities, RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, Raymond James, UBS, Evercore and Credit Suisse.
Lazard was founded in 1848 and operates from more than 40 cities across 25 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. The firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, restructuring and capital structure, capital raising and corporate finance, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments, and individuals., according to the company’s profile.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the firm evolved into three “Houses of Lazard” in the United States, France, and England, separately managed but allied. The Lazard partners advised clients on financial matters and built a cross-border network of high-level relationships in business and government. Noted financial advisor George Blumenthal rose to prominence as the head of the U.S. branch of Lazard Frères and was a partner of Lazard Frères in France.
In the economic boom following World War II, the American operations of Lazard expanded significantly under the leadership of the financier André Meyer. Meyer and Lazard partner Felix Rohatyn have been credited with virtually inventing the modern mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market, Wikipedia researched
In 1953, Lazard Investors Ltd began an asset management business in London, which is the origin of today’s Lazard Asset Management.
Banks are doling out the bucks to keep overworked talent from fleeing amid a dizzying workload thanks to the spike in deals, according to the NY Post.
Spoiled bankers, many who never worked a job where they get their hands dirty, griped of shifts as long as 20 hours that left them little time to eat, sleep or shower, claiming that the grind damaged their physical and mental health. The average American does not pity them!
