Goldman pays director David Solomon $35 million after record profits last year

Goldman Sachs doubled the salary of its chief executive officer, David Solomon, to 35 million dollars last year when the US bank posted record profits during the boom in Wall Street.

Solomon has earned 17.5 million dollars for 2020, $10 million lower than the previous year, after the bank’s board cut salaries for senior executives in the wake of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad corruption scandal, in which Goldman admitted bribery to secure the raising of funds for Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.

In a stock filing on Friday, Goldman said Solomon received a base salary of $2 million in 2021, unchanged from the previous year. His variable compensation is $33 million, which includes bonuses of approximately $10 million in cash and $23.1 million in stock related to the bank’s performance.

In October, Goldman said it granted performance-based stock value 30 million dollars for Solomon and $20 million in stock for corporate president John Waldron. Those awards will be paid out in October 2026.

Goldman this month reported a 2021 net profit of 21.2 billion USDmore than double the level of the previous year and easily the largest in banking history.

However, Goldman said its fourth-quarter profit fell 13% year-over-year to $3.8 billion as wages including bonuses rose 31% to $3.2 billion.

In an interview told the Financial Times earlier this month, Solomon said: “There’s no doubt that inflationary pressures around compensation have an impact.”

Solomon’s 2021 salary is also the same as Solomon’s salary James Gorman, the chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley, Goldman’s traditional investment banking rival. Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank by assets, was paid $34.5 million.

Gorman earned a base salary of $1.5 million, a bonus of $8.375 million, $5,025 million in deferred stock bonuses, and $20.1 million in performance-based stock bonuses . Dimon is paid a $1.5 million base salary and $33 million in performance-based bonuses.