Who is suffering more at premiere banks: employees or shareholders? Well, if an employee gets laid off anytime soon the answer obvious. But it's a little more subtle assuming the big layoff wave will not hit in the fourth quarter. According to Breakingviews, you've got to balance the rise or decline in employee pay versus the shareholder returns and their burden in the form of higher capital requirements.

At Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), "the firm made 14 percent less revenue in the first nine months of the year. But it has also trimmed four percentage points off its ratio of compensation to revenue. So employee costs are down an impressive-sounding 22 percent," noted Breakingviews.

"Goldman's shareholders arguably suffered more: return on common equity fell by a third to 13.2 percent, excluding a couple of one-off charges, in part because the bank increased its capital base by 28 percent."

At JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), overall pay increased at about the same rate as return on equity, but shareholders are also being asked to shoulder more of the burden, as the company has also boosted its capital reserves. At Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), the payout ratio leaped as did revenues; capital also was boosted but the return on equity was not great.

All in all, Breakingviews concludes that employees are faring better as of now. But a recovery in stock prices would change that quickly.

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