Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon Warns New York City: Don’t Take Your Standing For Granted

It was no sooner than we reported Goldman was doing what it needed to do to retain its talent that Chief Executive Officer David Solomon is now urging the city of New York to do the same. 

At a Financial Times conference this week, Solomon commented that the city’s leadership needed to keep an eye on how companies are fleeing the city in favor of less regulated, lower taxed, venues like Florida. 

“New York has to be aware that there are good choices, and it’s got to keep itself attractive. Incentives matter, taxes matter, cost of living matters,” Solomon said this week. 

Meanwhile, Solomon’s Goldman Sachs has been expanding in other geographical locations. 

New York “can’t take its standing for granted,” Bloomberg reported that Solomon warned. 

Incoming Mayor Eric Adams has said that he wanted New York to become “the center of the cryptocurrency industry.”

Just days ago, the WSJ reported about new worker benefits that Goldman was offering its employees to retain them, including paid bereavement leave and opportunities to take Sabbaticals. 

Banks on Wall Street have been coddling their bankers amidst an epic labor shortage and ever since rogue Goldman Sachs employees made and publicized a slide deck about how tough working conditions were at the bank.

And cost of living continues to look like it is a factor for banks based in New York City.

Recall, earlier this year, we noted that Evercore was now paying its junior bankers up to $120,000 per year. Second year analysts at Evercore will make $130,000 and third year analysts will make $140,000. 

Guggenheim has also raised its first year analyst pay to $110,000. First-year analysts across the global corporate and investment banking, markets, and research at Bank of America will now receive $100,000 per year, up from $95,000. Second year analysts will make $105,000 per year and third year analysts will make $110,000. 

Months ago we also noted that Jefferies announced it was going to be raising pay for its first year analysts in the U.S. to $110,000. The bump in pay is a raise of $25,000 from their previous starting salary of $85,000 per year. Second year analysts will make $125,000, up from $95,000 and third year analysts, called associates, will move up to $150,000 per year from $125,000.