Bonus season is fast approaching on Wall Street, but this year the talk does not center just on multimillion-dollar paydays. It’s about a new club that no one wants to join: the Zeros.
Drawn from a broad swath of back-office employees and middle-level traders, bankers and brokers, the Zeros, as they have come to be called, are facing a once-unthinkable prospect: an annual bonus of ... nothing.
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At Goldman, for instance, the base salary for managing directors rose to $500,000 from $300,000, while at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse it jumped to $400,000 from $200,000.
Even though employees will receive roughly the same amount of money, the psychological blow of not getting a bonus is substantial, especially in a Wall Street culture that has long equated success and prestige with bonus size. So there are sure to be plenty of long faces on employees across the financial sector who have come to expect a bonus on top of their base pay. Wall Streeters typically find out what their bonuses will be in January, with the payout coming in February.
Let's all pause for a moment and consider the sheer horror of only having your annual compensation MORE THAN DOUBLED while not receiving a year end bonus. Those poor, poor banksters must have their fee-fees all hurted, having to wander their halls of power and listen to the jeers of being called 'Zeros.' This is a big deal - they will probably have to settle for a Gulfstream III instead of a Gulstream IV.
And while the delicate flowers on Wall Street cry themselves to sleep over their $300,000 raises, here's what's happening in the rest of America:
Census Bureau data released in September showed that the number of multifamily households jumped 11.7 percent from 2008 to 2010, reaching 15.5 million, or 13.2 percent of all households. It is the highest proportion since at least 1968, accounting for 54 million people.
Even that figure, however, is undoubtedly an undercount of the phenomenon social service providers call “doubling up,” which has ballooned in the recession and anemic recovery. The census’ multifamily household figures, for example, do not include such situations as when a single brother and a single sister move in together, or when a childless adult goes to live with his or her parents.
For many, the arrangements represent their last best option, the only way to stave off entering a homeless shelter or sleeping in their cars. In fact, nearly half of the people in shelters in 2009 who had not previously been homeless had been staying with family members or friends, according to a recent report, making clear that the arrangements are frequently a final way station on the way to homelessness.
While the poor, beleaguered Zeros on Wall Street sprain their vaginas whining about their salaries doubling, almost a fifth of the country is 'doubling up' with friends and family to stave off financial ruin and avoid sleeping in homeless shelters. Maybe they should be handing this out during bonus season on Wall Street:
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