Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon gets 24% pay RAISE to $31 million after profits at the bank plunged 24%

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon received $31 million in compensation for 2023, up 24 percent from the $25 million he earned in 2022, the company said in a filing Friday.

The healthy wage increase comes after the bank’s profits fell 24 percent to $8.52 billion in 2023, a year in which Goldman retreated from an ill-fated foray into consumer banking.

Still, Goldman Sachs shares rose about 12 percent this year to end 2023 as its streamlined strategy and the prospect of lower interest rates attracted investors.

Solomon’s 2023 salary consists of a base salary of $2 million, unchanged from the previous year, and a bonus of $8.7 million in cash and $20.3 million in performance-linked shares, the bank said.

“The Compensation Committee believes that senior management’s actions were critical to reorienting the company with a much stronger platform for 2024 and beyond,” Goldman disclosed in its filing with regulators, referring to the pay increase.

Among Wall Street peers, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay rose 4.3 percent to $36 million in 2023, while former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman earned 17 percent more to $37 million.

Goldman’s foray into consumer banking, which lost $3 billion in three years, continued to weigh on profits last year as the company exited the sector.

The Wall Street giant is better prepared for a capital markets rebound in 2024 as it refocuses on its core dealmaking and trading businesses, executives said last month.

‘I am encouraged by the activity in the capital markets. I’m not going to say it’s going back to the 10-year average right now, but it has improved significantly,” CEO David Solomon said when the company announced fourth-quarter results last month.

“If I look at it in broad terms, it feels better,” as more equity issues and issuance of bonds and shares are expected this year.

Goldman’s stock trading revenues rose 26 percent in the fourth quarter.

While Goldman’s trading revenue rose, investment banking costs fell 12 percent to $1.65 billion, amid a continued slump in dealmaking.

Meanwhile, Solomon has given up his ‘side job’ as a DJ after criticism that it was a distraction from his work running the investment bank.

Meanwhile, Solomon has given up his ‘side job’ as a DJ after criticism that it was a distraction from his work running the investment bank.

Solomon’s last high-profile DJ performance was at Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival in July 2022, after which he decided to halt his performances due to unwanted media attention, people familiar with the matter told the Financial times last October.

The 61-year-old executive, whose pay package at Goldman was $25 million last year, started DJing in 2015 under the stage name “D-Sol” and founded his own record label in 2018, donating all proceeds to charities that fight addiction.

But according to FT, he decided to quit the hobby after it drew criticism from disgruntled bankers within Goldman, who were angry about lower wages and alleged strategic missteps at the bank.

A Goldman spokesperson told the newspaper: “This is not news. David has not publicly DJed an event in over a year, which we have confirmed several times in the past.”