My, My

Bloomberg (01.11.06):

"Wall Street firms will pay their New York City workers a record $21.5 billion in bonuses for 2005 after profits at companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. reached an all-time high, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi said. Average bonuses for the city's 174,000 investment bankers and other securities-industry workers will rise 10 percent to $125,500, also a record, Hevesi said today in a statement." Bloomberg.com: U.S.

In the meantime, the seasonally adjusted, average hourly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls (in 1982 dollars) rose to - $8.16, the same as it was at about this time in 2001. How do you spell stagnant? In current dollars, that would be $16.34 per hour, or $33,987.20 a year.