Goldman Sachs Pay and Bonuses Hit $12.61bn in 2013

Goldman Sachs paid its employees $12.61bn in 2013 but this is still a 3% drop from the year before.

According to the Wall Street giant's results for 2013, Goldman ratio of compensation and benefits, which includes salaries, discretionary compensation, amortization of equity awards and other items such as benefits, to net revenues for last year was 36.9%, compared with 37.9% for 2012.

Goldman employs around 32,400 staff around the world and workers were paid an average wage of $400,000 each in 2012, a rise of more than $30,000 a head on 2011.

Since the compensation pool is around the same amount in 2013 as it is for the year before, many speculate that the average wage remains around the same mark.

It also increased headcount by 2% from 2012.

Meanwhile, Goldman beat analyst expectations and anointed shareholders with an 11% return on equity (RoE) despite lower bond trading revenue.

However, before the financial crisis, Goldman used to post a 30% RoE, 10.7% in 2012 and 3.7% in 2011. According to a Bloomberg analyst poll, the full-year RoE was tipped to be 10.4%.

Meanwhile, Goldman reported a 21% drop in four quarter profits as revenue from fixed-income trading fell.