Soaring profits on Wall Street helped drive up the average bonus paid to employees in New York City’s securities industry to a record $257,500 for last year, the state comptroller reported Wednesday.

The average securities industry bonus was 20% higher than 2020 and came out of a bonus pool that grew to $45 billion, according to annual estimates from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

DiNapoli cited pretax profits through the first three quarters of 2021 for broker/dealer operations on the New York Stock Exchange, which increased by 19.6% to $44.9 billion.

The securities industry accounts for one-fifth of private sector wages in New York City, despite comprising 5% of private sector employment. The industry also accounted for 18% of state tax collections and 7% of city tax collections in the governments' 2021 fiscal years, according to DiNapoli.

The comptroller said that recent events could drive down near-term profitability and bonus payments.

“Markets are turbulent as other sectors’ recovery remains sluggish and uneven, and Russia wages an inexcusable war on Ukraine’s freedom,” DiNapoli said in a prepared statement. "In New York, we won’t get back to our pre-Covid economic strength until more New Yorkers and more sectors — retail, tourism, construction, the arts and others — enjoy similar success.”

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