It’s Wall Street bonus season, and employees at JPMorgan Chase are learning whether they will get a pay bump. Some workers are already voicing their displeasure with the bank.
This week, JPMorgan Chase began informing its more than 300,000 employees how much they earned in 2024 bonuses. Managers started telling their staff on Tuesday, Jan. 21 and were expected to finish up by Wednesday, Jan. 22. JPMorgan Chase is expected to pay out the bonuses, for U.S. based employees, on Jan. 28.
Nearly all JPMorgan Chase employees questioned by Fortune were unhappy with their compensation. Bonuses for investment bankers and traders were expected to rise by at least 10% at several bulge-bracket investment banks, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. Bonuses for investment bankers at JPMorgan Chase were said to jump by 15%, the story said. A JPMorgan Chase spokesman declined comment.
Every year there is considerable tongue-wagging over the bonuses pulled in by investment bankers at JPMorgan and other IBs. But investment banking is just a part of the array of businesses at the country’s largest bank. JPMorgan Chase also has thousands of employees working in consumer and community banking, commercial banking, and asset and wealth management.
One JPM worker, who has been with the bank for several years, said everyone on their team got a 2% raise. (The five employees Fortune spoke with for this story did not want their names used for fear of retaliation. None of the five are investment bankers.) The JPM employee, who is in the Southwest, learned Wednesday that their bonus increased by just $3,000. “It hasn’t been a positive experience for most of us,” said the worker, who said they took the rest of the day off so they wouldn’t say anything they’d regret.
A second employee, who works in the South, said they were “shocked” at how bad their compensation turned out. The worker said they had received “stellar reviews” and were prepared for a meager raise “because that’s how it goes when you stay at a company,” but the result was still worse than what they had expected. “It just feels like a slap in the face,” the second employee said.
A third JPM employee, who is in the Northeast, said their 2% raise was lower than in prior years. This staffer has worked remotely for several years since their office was closed during the pandemic. “I’m in a position where pushing back would likely be detrimental,” they said.
Some look on the bright side
Other employees are trying to remain positive. A fourth employee, also from a Southern city, said their raise dropped to 2.7% from 3% last year. “I’m thankful my numbers weren’t lower now that I’m hearing what happened to a lot of other folks,” they said. And a fifth JPM worker, from a big Western city, said they kept their expectations low. “I wasn’t too disappointed,” the fifth employee said.
The lackluster raises come after JPMorgan Chase posted fourth-quarter results last week that surpassed Wall Street estimates. The bank’s profit rose 50% to $14 billion while revenue climbed 10% to $43.74 billion, CNBC reported on Jan. 15. JPMorgan’s full-year net income soared to $58.5 billion, a record for the bank.
JPMorgan Chase is the nation’s biggest bank with $4 trillion in assets as of Dec. 31. Shares of JPMorgan have soared nearly 55% in the past 52 weeks, closing Wednesday at $262.84.
All the employees questioned by Fortune noted JPMorgan’s recent stellar performance. “[It] feels very much like a punch to the gut to be so disrespected and undervalued,” the second employee said. Traders and investment bankers are expected to receive their biggest bonuses since the pandemic, although it’s still unclear how these divisions will fare at JPMorgan.
Roughly two weeks ago, JPMorgan Chase set off a firestorm when the bank informed its more than 300,000 employees that all staff would be required to return to the office five days a week, possibly as early as March. Roughly 40% of the bank’s employees are currently on a hybrid schedule, coming into the office three days a week.
Many of the employees said they would begin searching for another job. Some think that the low raises and bonuses, along with the RTO mandate, mean JPMorgan Chase is looking to cut staffers.
“I do feel that as people plan to exit, this was the company’s plan all along. [JPMorgan Chase] will save a lot on severances by just pushing people out,” the second employee said.
