The banks with the best and worst working hours
Bankers work a lot – that’s not news. But which bankers work the most?
2022 might have been a low point for banking revenues, but it definitely wasn’t a low point for bank working hours – our end of year survey for the year suggested that a significant majority of bankers were working the same hours as they were in 2021, a huge year for revenues.
Goldman Sachs came out on top for the second year in a row in forum site Wall Street Oasis’ industry report of bank working hours, averaging nearly 90 hours a week, the same as last year. It’s a lot – but the infamous 100-hour weeks complained about by Goldman Sachs juniors might, luckily, be a thing of the past.
The top part of WSO’s ranking is overwhelmingly American, and overwhelmingly boutiques, besides Goldman. Of other major banks, it’s a mix of European and American – with Credit Suisse leading the pack ahead of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.
Despite huge differences in working hours, there isn’t a huge difference in salaries for juniors – with Goldman Sachs VPs, for instance, reporting the same salaries as Wells Fargo VPs despite working more than 20 hours more a week. Goldman, however, generally pays much higher total compensation than Wells Fargo when bonuses are added, but Centerview - which pays the highest total compensation of the lot - works its employees an average of 10 hours less each week according to WSO.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: Zeno.Toulon@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)