It was less than a month ago when Barclays announced it would fire 12,000 [6]workers after posting abysmal earnings with Q4 banking income crashing 37% and overall income sliding 9%. So, one would think, its employees would be punished with lower pay - those that are lucky enough to keep their jobs of course. One would be wrong. Reuters just reported that 481 of Barclays employees were paid 1 million pounds ($1.7 million) or more last year, 53 more than in the year before, and most of them were based in the United States.
The headscratcher continues:
Barclays said 57 percent of those paid at least 1 million pounds were based in the United States and 27 percent were based in Britain.
The bank said in its annual report that Chief Executive Antony Jenkins could be paid up to 7.2 million pounds this year, down 1.4 million from his maximum pay under his previous pay structure, although more is now guaranteed.
Barclays provoked anger last month when the bank said it paid 2.4 billion pounds in bonuses last year, up 10 percent on the year despite profits tumbling by a third.
Surely, this latest announcement will not provoke much happiness either. More improtantly, news like this is why, despite generating massive losses, Barclays employees are generally richer than you, if not quite richer than Jamie Dimon. Because in the New Normal, all one needs to make a million is to keep losing money. Barcalys' immutable rationale - fear of losing the traders to a better-paying competitor. Like who - is the Fed hiring again?