Goldman Sachs Slashes Average Pay 45% to $363,654

[jeffrey]

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. eliminated 2,500 jobs in the fourth quarter and slashed average pay per worker 45 percent to $363,654 as the firm posted the first quarterly loss since going public almost a decade ago.

Expenses for compensation and benefits fell 46 percent to $10.9 billion from a record $20.2 billion in 2007, the New York- based company said in a statement today. That provides an average $363,654 for each of the firm’s 30,067 employees, down from $661,490 for each of the 30,522 people employed last year.

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and six deputies agreed to forgo their year-end bonuses after the firm converted to a bank-holding company and accepted $10 billion from the government to help it survive a financial crisis that eliminated three smaller rivals. The firm’s bonus pool, estimated at 60 percent of total compensation, dropped to $6.56 billion or an average $218,193 per employee this year...

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide