NEW YORK — It’s bonus season for Wall Street, and while Goldman Sachs employees are learning the extent of their 2010 pay cuts, they’ll still take home more than rivals at JPMorgan Chase.

JPMorgan started telling employees of year-end payouts this week, while Morgan Stanley was planning to do so Friday, sources said, requesting anonymity because the timing isn’t public.

Citigroup, which awarded executive bonuses on Tuesday, started telling traders and investment bankers about payouts the next day, said Jon Diat, a spokesman. On Thursday, it said it gave about $50 million in stock to 15 top executives. London-based Barclays’ bankers will get the news mid-February, two people said.

American and European banks are under pressure to curb bonuses after taxpayers were forced to bail out the industry during the financial crisis. JPMorgan’s investment bank set aside enough money to pay an average of $369,651 to each employee in 2010, or 2.4 percent less than in 2009, according to the company’s year-end financial statements. Goldman Sachs’ pool equates to an average of $430,700, a reduction of 14 percent.

“As a rule of thumb, bonuses are going to be down 5 percent to 10 percent on last year as revenues have fallen,” said Shaun Springer, chief executive officer of London-based Square Mile Services, which advises firms on compensation.

Investment banks set aside a portion of revenue to reward employees and typically decide bonuses at the end of the year based on annual results. Average pay per worker doesn’t reflect the amount of money each employee actually receives. Top executives sometimes receive multimillion-dollar awards, while clerical workers get less.

The four New York-based banks will spend a combined $84.4 billion, or an average of $141,192 apiece, on their 598,073 workers, according to financial reports released since Jan. 14.

That figure is pulled down by the average at Citigroup – $93,962 last year – because the bank has 260,000 employees, many of them tellers, commercial bankers and transaction processors who earn lower pay.

 

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