The average Wall Street salary has risen to $422,500

Wall Street.
(Image credit: iStock)

While most Americans see stagnant wages, Wall Street workers are receiving a nice pay raise.

In a report released Monday, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli detailed that the average Wall Street salary increased 13 percent in 2017, to $422,500. This is the highest pay increase the New York City securities industry has seen since the 2008 financial crisis. The pay increase for the average worker, meanwhile, hovers around zero.

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"Wall Street has profited every year since the end of the recession in 2009, and compensation last year reached its highest point since the financial crisis," said DiNapoli. "The industry is on track for another good year absent a major setback later in the year."

Wall Street recorded $24.5 billion in pre-tax profits in 2017. Projections look good again this year, with Wall Street already earning $13.7 billion in the first half of 2018 — an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, per Bloomberg. Read more from the report here.

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Amari Pollard

Amari Pollard is the social media editor at The Week and has written for Reader's Digest, Parents, and Inside Lacrosse. She studied journalism at Le Moyne College and can usually be found exploring Brooklyn, thrift shopping, or spending way too much money on brunch.