Goldman Sachs’ Exclusive Investing Club Is a Powerful Draw
Employees’ privileged access to its own funds show a widening compensation gap on Wall Street.
Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergBloomberg’s bonus calculator offers a revealing look at the divergent value of Wall Street employee payouts. A stock award of $100,000 from JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 2022 would now be worth $115,000 fully vested; the same from Bank of America Corp. is worth only $83,000. Pity the poor traders from Deutsche Bank AG (and, before it collapsed, Credit Suisse) whose stock grants would regularly depreciate before they were able to cash them in.
But the power of their stock isn’t the only way firms differentiate themselves (and no, I’m not talking about “culture”). Among the many benefits that banks provide – health services, childcare centers, fitness facilities and so on – one of them is access to special investment programs. “The firm also looks to offer additional wealth-creation opportunities, including the Employee Special Investment Program,” trumpets Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at the bottom of its benefits webpage.