Wall Street pay revealed: What investment bankers earned in 2024

• Recruiting firm Prospect Rock Partners surveyed over 900 bankers, from boutiques to bulge brackets.
• BI obtained some of the results, including how much bankers in varying groups and levels made.
• See which titles and coverage areas saw the biggest pay bumps in 2024 as dealmaking rebounded.

Psst! How much was your bonus?

On Wall Street, your end-of-year paycheck can often indicate your standing at work. Yet, knowing where your bonus pay ranks compared to peers is not so simple.

In an effort to shed some light on Wall Street pay trends, recruiting firm Prospect Rock Partners surveyed more than 900 investment bankers about their 2024 salaries and bonuses.

The survey was conducted between December 1, 2024 and February 28, 2025 using Prospect Rock’s banking industry contacts. It’s the third year Meridith Dennes, the firm’s managing partner, has conducted it.

“It’s always been so cryptic,” Dennes told Business Insider about the Wall Street compensation structure. “The whole point of the survey is that compensation is much more nuanced than what people talk about.”

Survey respondents included bankers from all ranks, from analysts up to vice presidents and managing directors, and across a multitude of coverage groups, and firms.

Prospect Rock Partners gave BI permission to publish select slides from its full survey. The results shared here suggest that so-called elite boutique banks (think Evercore, Lazard, and Centerview) saw total compensation increases of between 11% to 68% across all roles. Total pay for associates at elite boutiques rose an average of 31% for first-year associates and 33% for second-year associates. Managing director compensation at elite boutiques jumped from about $1 million in 2023 to over $1.7 million in 2024, an increase of 68%.

These bonus insights come as Wall Street waits with bated breath to see whether the M&A rebound many industry experts predicted for 2025 will fully materialize or fizzle out.

“There’s so much uncertainty — geopolitical risk, the impact on the private sector of DOGE cuts, tariffs, and the interest rate environment — which can cause a lot of turmoil in the market,” Dennes said.

The investment banking hiring surge that started at the end of 2024 continues, however, Dennes said.

“I, as a recruiter, am seeing an increase in job requisitions coming in, but it’s much harder to find talent than what people want,” she said. “More companies who haven’t used recruiters in the last two years are coming out of the woodwork now.”