there's something wrong with life when you hear stories like this. how is it even humanly possible for them to get that kind of bonus given the way the economy is. that's just WRONG and you have to know that bailout dollars are helping here and that's even more wrong!

if the employees get bonuses that large you can only imagine the kinds of profits the business is raking in. yikes.... I don't even think my firm has bonuses this year even though we are doing relatively well globally in this economy.

Why is it wrong for a successful company to reward its employees with bonuses? My understand is that Goldman Sachs did receive a relatively small amount of bailout money and has already paid it all back.

I don't consider it a success when need ANY type of bailout. Bailout = failure, regardless of the speed with which they paid it back. Besides, this is probably not the only 'bailout' they received. GM et al received government money so many times before this particular bailout.

Anon, they didn't want to take the bailout money, but the law was written as such that the banks who didn't take it were actually punished in other ways. Additionally, the point of the bailout money was supposed to be that these banks could use it to get back into the red. Goldman Sachs has a surplus and is no longer operating on any government money. How is that not a success? They didn't NEED the bailout, they just took it.

And yes, car companies did take a lot of government money before the bailout, but banks/investment groups really didn't.

It was good to see that one person did his homework on the banks. {lilkimbo} Goldman Sachs has always paid their people a very base salary. Yes under 400,000 per year but that is low compared to the cost of living in New York city. The employees work many hour per day. I know one executive that work routinely a 60 to70 hour week and is always on a plane. Great rewards for the family but one is always away from ones family. The company is global and a high percent of the rewards are from the global market not the US market. Also if you do not produce then you sit without the great extras until you leave the firm. The upper group has no retirement or security. You make it when you can or get out. The business world can have a hard side.

All, You have to note this is THE premier investment bank out there. They are extremely good at what they do, and if they do it well - and can make the money then why not? That is called the essense of free markets right - if you think you can do better - go for it.

Also, on the hours 60-70.. I would say you have to up that considerably...

I believe that when one works hard you should be rewarded. The fact that they have already paid back the stimulus is a big deal. The car industry hasn't and they received MUCH more help.

This makes me ponder....where has that $ which has been paid back from the stimulus gone? Seems that should be the focus. It would be easy to focus on this group getting bonuses when so many are doing without BUT they have paid their bills and moved on.

Perhaps our leaders would rather us focus on this instead of where the stimulus money is going which has been already paid back.

I think they deserve every penny of their salary and bonuses. However this is only an average pay. It is definitely badly skewed with the top 10% taking more than 75% of the entire pay as is the case with all of US salaries. I wish the lowest one of them got $750,000. They are the ones that keep our economy going. They pay taxes and buy luxury items such as jewelry which is a field that I am involved in and desperately needs wealthy people in this country. Lets not turn this country into socialism and lets reward the ones who work diligently for over 100 hours a week by huge salaries and bonuses!!