Less Bonus Money, $500 Million to Charity at Goldman Sachs

You know all that yelling you've been doing about outrageous executive pay on Wall Street? Well, looks like Goldman Sachs heard you. According to the New York Times, "in reaction to the public outcry over executive compensation, the bank reduced the share of revenue going to bonuses."

That amount came to $16.2 billion. Which is to say, they’re still a bank. Bankers are still going to get paid, but this year, money set aside for salaries and bonuses was down to 35.8 percent of revenue, from nearly 50 percent in 2008.

But here's the real good news: the bank gave an astounding $500 million of its bonus money to charities and small businesses. We also wrote about Goldman employees who volunteered to take out the trash at a Thanksgiving meal at the Plaza hotel last year.

"We are not blind to the economic environment and the pain and suffering still going on around the world," Goldman’s CFO David Viniar told the Times.

They’ve taken measures to at least show that they’ve been listening: Earlier this year, the company said it would only give out stock — and no cash — to its top 30 executives, including chief executive Lloyd Blankfein.

The news of their new compensation to revenue ratio came as the bank announced earnings of $13.4 billion last year, or $8.20 a share, beating consensus estimates of $5.20 per share. The record profits were achieved, said the LA Times, "mainly by reducing the amount it set aside for employee compensation."

Photo courtesy Americans4FinancialReform via Flickr