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Goldman Sachs collectively awarded four of its top executives a 30 per cent pay raise for their work in 2024, far greater than the bankโs overall workforce, and gave its president John Waldron expanded personal use of the companyโs private plane.
In its proxy filing released on Friday, Goldman disclosed Waldron earned $38mn for 2024, finance chief Denis Coleman received $27mn and general counsel Kathryn Ruemmlerโs pay was $22.5mn. The Wall Street bank in January said last yearโs pay for chief executive David Solomon was $39mn.
The $126.5mn total for the four executives is up 30 per cent from $97mn in 2023. Overall across Goldman, its 46,500 employees were paid $16.7bn in pay and benefits for 2024, up 8 per cent from a year earlier.
Goldman referred to the proxy statement that said the bankโs โ[compensation] committee considered the firmโs financial performance, both on an absolute basis and relative to peer resultsโ.
Part of the increase comes from the bank introducing a new so-called carried interest programme for its top executives, which is linked to the performance of the groupโs asset management funds. Shares granted in the form of performance stock awards were also higher than a year ago.
Goldman also disclosed its board now expected Waldron to use the bankโs private jet for personal travel. Previously, this was limited to Solomon. The company said this was for security reasons and to maximise the efficiency of their time.
It is the latest perk Goldman has given Waldron this year, following an $80mn retention bonus and a coveted seat on the bankโs board of directors.
Goldman bought two private planes in 2019 under the direction of Solomon, a move which broke with a long-standing policy to rent private aircraft from NetJets.
Other senior executives โwho have time-sharing agreements with us may use our corporate aircraft for personal use in limited circumstancesโ, Goldman said. The bank said its policy is to require reimbursement of โthe aggregate incremental costsโ associated with any personal use.
Goldmanโs profits in 2024 rose 71 per cent to $13.5bn, boosted by higher investment banking fees and fewer losses caused by its pullback from an ill-fated expansion into retail banking. The bankโs share price rose almost 50 per cent last year.
In recent years, the groupโs management team has talked about an intense war for talent from other investment banks, as well as hedge funds and asset managers.
Solomon last month said: โItโs a competitive world and weโre going to ensure that for extraordinarily talented people that make a difference at Goldman Sachs, that they can have enormous opportunities that are just as attractive as lots of other things that they can go out and do.โ
