Recall that the movement to reform pay on Wall Street led to a big shift: as the political angst over big bonuses ratcheted up, the top firms started paying more in salary, with their eyes on reducing bonuses. So many employees across the units--bankers and traders, as well as back office workers--saw their base pay jump.

At Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), the base salary for managing directors rose to $500,000 from $300,000. At Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), base pay rose to $400,000 from $200,000, reports the New York Times.

But the flip side is now hitting home. More employees will be getting a big fat zero for the annual bonus, notes the newpaper. Zero!

Hopefully, banks had been communicating all along with the rank-and-file about the bonus implications of their larger salaries. Although I'm sure they did.

But still, the list of disappointed employees at the top five Wall Street firms will be long. One executive tells the Times they are throwing token bonuses of $25,000 or so to those who are getting zero.

That said, the top executives will still be taking home some very big bonuses. The reality is that the bonus distribution was always skewed heavily in favor of the top dogs.

All in all, the percentage of people getting million dollar bonuses is smaller than most people assume.

For more:
- here's the article

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