The average Wall Street bonus soared last year — but still fell short of the projections in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 2026 city budget proposal that was counting on a 15% bump, according to data released by state officials on Thursday.
The total amount of bonuses paid out to execs in New York’s massive securities sector rose 9% from 2024 to $49.2 billion, according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s report.
The average year-end payout came to $246,900 in 2025, a 6% increase, as industry profits jumped more than 30% to $65.1 billion, fueled by strong trading, underwriting and asset-management fees, the report found.
The bonuses are ultimately projected to generate an extra $199 million in state income tax revenue and $91 million for the city, compared with the previous year, according to DiNapoli’s report.
“When Wall Street does well, it’s good for our state and city budgets, which are reliant on the industry’s significant tax contributions,” DiNapoli wrote in a statement.
Despite the positive growth, DiNapoli’s figures likely come as a sore disappointment for Mamdani, whose first financial plan, a $127 billion budget, had projected a 15.1% increase in securities industry bonuses.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office had overprojected the bonus pool even further – estimating 25.9% growth in 2025.
City and state pols trying to balance their budgets on a tax revenue windfall now face much smaller totals than expected— and that could mean taxpayers end up picking up the tab next year.
“Based on DiNapoli’s estimate, tax revenue from the bonuses may fall short of expectations for the current fiscal year,” the report reads.
If DiNapoli’s figures are accurate, they could leave Hochul’s proposed $263 billion budget hundreds of millions of dollars short and Mamdani’s tens of millions in the hole, a source with understanding of the report estimated.
A spokesperson for Hochul’s budget office downplayed the disappointing report saying the projections “are just that, point-in-time projections.”
“With revenue sources like Wall Street bonus pools being very volatile, it’s not uncommon to experience swings in projections at different points in time,” Hochul budget office spokesperson Tim Ruffinen wrote in a statement to The Post.
Mamdani and his “tax the rich” allies both in City Hall and Albany continue pushing for a raft of levies to soak businesses and New Yorkers.
The democratic socialist mayor, who wants to to milk Wall Street to meet a requirement to close a reputed $5.4 billion budget gap ahead of the start of the city’s new fiscal year in July, is threatening to introduce a wealth tax, raise levies for corporations and hike property taxes.
While Hochul has committed to not raising income taxes this year, it’s unclear how long that promise may last if she wins re-election in November.
Hochul, who once called for New York’s uber-wealthy “to jump on a bus” for Florida, has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn after she, this month, urged them to return and help fix its shrinking base.
The Post has previously reported how Texas and Florida are looking to tempt Wall Streeters away with the promise of lower taxes and a better standard of living.
Income tax collections from the securities industry generated a massive $22 billion for the state and $7 billion for New York City budgets in the 2024 fiscal year, per a separate report put out by DiNapoli’s office.
DiNapoli’s data shows that the city’s share of finance jobs nationwide stands at just shy of 18%, with 198,200 people directly employed in the sector, compared to a 30-year high of 201,500 the year before.
DiNapoli said it is down from roughly one-third in 1990, but it is still higher than in any other state.
“When we talk about growth happening more rapidly in other parts of the country, that’s concerning, but it does not signal the end of New York (as a financial hub),” he told reporters, stressing that the industry is “still a very, very important part of our state’s economy.”
“We should just do all that we can to make sure that it stays that way,” he said.
Pay in finance stayed exceptionally high. Average annual salary, including bonuses, rose 7.3% to $505,677 in 2024, the second-highest on record and nearly five times the average in the rest of the city’s private sector. Bonuses made up about 42% of wages.
Wall Street drove 20.2% of all economic activity in the city in 2024. It also delivered 19.4% of state tax collections in the state fiscal year 2024-25 and 8.4% of city tax revenue in the city fiscal year 2025.
“We are seeing slower job growth, and geopolitical conflicts have global repercussions that pose extraordinary risks for the short- and long-term outlook on the financial sector and for broader economic markets,” DiNapoli warned, while stressing that the Big Apple is still this country’s center of financial gravity.
Each year, DiNapoli’s office estimates the bonuses paid to Wall Streeters from December through March. The estimate does not include bonuses paid to employees outside the city.
The 2025 estimate is based on income tax withholding data. It includes cash bonuses for work done in 2025, as well as previously delayed bonuses that workers have now cashed in. It excludes stock options and other deferred pay that are still to be taxed.