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Why do people who work for banks make so much $$$$$$$?

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because when you are working with millions of dollars, you can't help yourself, and so everyone rationalizes it, and the more you spread around the money the more you can rationalize it for yourself.
 
slayer202 said:
when you're ripping off other people by cheating the system for millions and millions, your boss can afford to give you a decent chunk of change
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DCal430 said:
I was wrong about the tellers, they seem to make starvation wages while everyone else is living in luxury.
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Of the tellers I know of, they knew someone somwhere to get the job. One was a college dropout, the second was a dropout or just decided on no college. They get paid garbage.
 
Every year National Public Radio mails off a modest fictitious income tax form to 50 of the best certified public accounts in the US, and every year they get 50 different answers as to how much tax they should pay. These people get paid a lot if they happen to make a lot because the truth is nobody knows why they are successful. If it were a science I'm sure they'd just teach the next schmuck in line how to do the job or even automate it.
 
Why do a lot of high placed people in many companies, organizations and government fill their own pockets? Because they can, and because they can get away with it.
 
All the higher ups in banks make a lot of money but everyone else makes peanuts. It is HARD work playing golf and eating expensive lunches with other executives.
 
The commercial bank that you visit is different from an investment bank. The majority of bank employees certainly do not make the big bucks. The bankers that you are referring to make so much because they are using an array of financial tactics (mainly leverage) coupled with the shear size of their transactions. They might represent 0.5% of bank employees out there.
 
From what I've heard, banks that normal people go to, don't pay their employees that much. On the other hand, banks for Wall Street companies pay extremely well.
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This ^^. One reason why Wall Street pay is high is because of a vicious cycle; it's lucrative (and perceived as such) so everyone wants to get in. And because it attracts as well as develops mercenaries, money is one of the few things that can persuade people to stay (think AIG's Cassano).

UglyCasanova said:
The commercial bank that you visit is different from an investment bank. The majority of bank employees certainly do not make the big bucks. The bankers that you are referring to make so much because they are using an array of financial tactics (mainly leverage) coupled with the shear size of their transactions. They might represent 0.5% of bank employees out there.
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This too. Sure, secretaries may get a bonus at Wall Street firms, but they're not going to get a 500,000 bonus just because they belong at a firm that did well.

Commercial banking =/= Investment banking, and investment banking =/= trading.
 
DCal430 said:
I wouldn't even be surprised if even bank tellers make a lot of money.
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LMAO, I made 10 cents above minimum wage when I was a bank teller, employees at a typical bank branch are not getting rich be it the manager, CSR's, or tellers.
 
The tellers I feel bad for. They are required to dress up like the people who make 3x as much and deal with the angry customers who dont know the teller can't do shit.
 
Just like any other employee, their compensation is based on their value to the company. Not a difficult concept. 🙂

If an investment banker makes the bank $5 million, for example, paying them $500k doesn't seem unfair.
 
frostedflakes said:
Just like any other employee, their compensation is based on their value to the company. Not a difficult concept. 🙂

If an investment banker makes the bank $5 million, for example, paying them $500k doesn't seem unfair.
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What a joke. You actually believe people get paid $500,000.oo according what someone thinks if "fair"? They get paid whatever the market will bear or whatever their employer thinks they can get away with. At one point in time that meant slaves who got paid nothing whatsoever for doing the same work for their masters in Rome in the hope of being freed.
 
LegendKiller said:
What type of "sales man"? I highly doubt he makes that much at any local bank unless he's selling high net worth financial products and I doubt he'd be offered a job like that at a "major wall street bank" and I doubt he works 20 hours a week. That's still not $1mm...
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The reward to tallent ratio is most screwed up in the financial industry. Not me who said it, Chalres Munger.
 
wuliheron said:
What a joke. You actually believe people get paid $500,000.oo according what someone thinks if "fair"? They get paid whatever the market will bear or whatever their employer thinks they can get away with. At one point in time that meant slaves who got paid nothing whatsoever for doing the same work for their masters in Rome in the hope of being freed.
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Well that was kind of my point, but maybe I worded it wrong.

Point was, an investment banker getting $500k (or whatever, it's just an example...) is directly responsible for making the company far more money than the teller at a commercial bank. The investment banker gets paid a lot because being able to invest large amounts of money wisely is a highly sought after skill in the industry and a good investor make the bank a lot of money. The teller gets paid comparatively little because, frankly, it's a job about anyone can do and they aren't directly responsible for making the bank a lot of money. Their worth to the company is much lower.

A lot of people want pay to be tied to value to society or something like that. But that just isn't the way the world works.
 
Fenixgoon said:
ill enjoy my 40hrs a week at far less (but still quite high, all things considered) pay. you know...that way i actually have time to enjoy my life.
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Ya, but those high paid execs probably work 10 hours a week and joke around with their friends/co-workers the other 30.
 
frostedflakes said:
Well that was kind of my point, but maybe I worded it wrong.

Point was, an investment banker getting $500k (or whatever, it's just an example...) is directly responsible for making the company far more money than the teller at a commercial bank. The investment banker gets paid a lot because being able to invest large amounts of money wisely is a highly sought after skill in the industry and a good investor make the bank a lot of money. The teller gets paid comparatively little because, frankly, it's a job about anyone can do and they aren't directly responsible for making the bank a lot of money. Their worth to the company is much lower.

A lot of people want pay to be tied to value to society or something like that. But that just isn't the way the world works.
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And as a whole they are participating in a zero sum game. Which means on average after their fees, they are not even providing average returns.
 
JS80 said:
I say it's a toss up between them and union workers.
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Depends on what union workers. Where I work, they earn their keep (build navy ships). They probably make twice as much as your city union employee for a reason.

As an investor that doesn't do so bad, I have to tell you that it is not as hard as most people think.
 
frostedflakes said:
Well that was kind of my point, but maybe I worded it wrong.

Point was, an investment banker getting $500k (or whatever, it's just an example...) is directly responsible for making the company far more money than the teller at a commercial bank. The investment banker gets paid a lot because being able to invest large amounts of money wisely is a highly sought after skill in the industry and a good investor make the bank a lot of money. The teller gets paid comparatively little because, frankly, it's a job about anyone can do and they aren't directly responsible for making the bank a lot of money. Their worth to the company is much lower.

A lot of people want pay to be tied to value to society or something like that. But that just isn't the way the world works.
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Your logic needs some serious work.

The bank could not operate as a bank if there wasn't a teller any more then a car can run without wheels. They could no doubt automate the job, but if they could automate the investment bankers job I'm sure they'd do that first just to save $500,000.oo a year. The investment banker doesn't get paid more because they make the bank more money; they get paid more because the bank can't replace them as easily. If it were the other way around and the tellers were more difficult to replace I'm sure they'd get paid more.

Whether or not you see this as somehow related to their "value" to society depends on just what your personal values are. I suspect, but can't prove, that even investment bankers have some sort of personal values and that the value of money itself is wrapped up in peoples' personal values as well. There are some things society just won't tolerate no matter how much money it makes.
 
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