Wall Street bonuses

Bonuses on Wall Street are bouncing back,even though its banks may only be alive thanks to government support. New York Citys financial industry paid its employees bonuses of 20.3 billion last year,according to figures released by the New York State Comptrollers office. The average Wall Street employee took home nearly 124,000 on top of his base salary last year a quarter more than in 2008 but still less than the average bonus in 2006,when the figure peaked at a staggering 191,360 per head. In 2008,when the industry lost a record 42.6 billion,it paid out 17.4 billion in bonuses. Total compensation on Wall Street may have exceeded 55 billion in 2009,which would be a new record.