Analyst bonuses in 2025 are not too bad, actually
Bonus season was a while ago for most bankers – we wrote a whole report about it – but it’s only now, at the end of summer, that investment banking analysts receive their bonuses. They were also pretty decent.
According to self-reported data from industry forum Wall Street Oasis, first-year analysts could expect bonuses of around $67k for their work in the last 12 months, while second-year analysts could expect bonuses of around $88k. The majority of analyst programs are now two years long.
It’s worth noting that the bonuses are higher than expected due to the nature of the data. In no world are a clear majority of bankers “top bucket” (top performers). Likely, these performers were most motivated to share their figures, while mid- and low-bucket bankers decided not to share their figures. Top bucket bankers received bonuses 30% higher than their mid-bucket peers, on average.
Bonuses ranged significantly by bank. Although there was not enough to draw individual bank averages, a middle market analyst could generally expect a bonus of ~$65k, a bulge bracket banker could expect a bonus of around ~$75k, and a boutique analyst could expect a bonus of around ~$80k.
Analysts’ bonuses are hard-earned. Although pandemic-era 100-hour weeks are no longer common (although they can be expected when bankers work on a live deal) the working hour situation is still bad. Late last year, for example, JPMorgan implemented a 80-hour cap on working hours – which didn’t apply during live deals. And most analysts are working on at least one live deal at any given time. Never mind, then.
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