Six years after Wall Street crashed the American economy,
Wall Street bonuses are up. Again. But the damage the financial industry did to our economy isn't the only piece of context that makes this news appalling:
On Wall Street, profits are down and the number of workers is shrinking.
But bonuses continue to grow larger.
Cash bonuses paid to Wall Street employees in New York City rose 15 percent on average last year, to $164,530, according to estimates released on Wednesday by Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller. That was the biggest average bonus since 2007, the year before the financial crisis struck.
Over all, workers in the financial industry in the city made an estimated $26.7 billion in bonuses last year, a number that, again, was the highest level since the crisis.
Funny, isn't it, how when low-wage workers at highly profitable companies ask for a raise above poverty wages, we hear so much about how their employers just can't afford it and giving them a raise would kill jobs, but when Wall Street profits are down—f'ing Wall Street, a chief driver of America's low-wage corporate culture—its executives still see their bonuses rise?