Goldman Sachs Analyst Bonuses Exceed Expectations, Beating Gloomy Predictions

First-year Goldman Sachs analysts collecting their 2026 bonuses got a quieter shock than many expected: the checks were actually decent. A March 6 compensation column by Mundurek concluded that "for many first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs, outcomes were materially better than some public commentary suggested" — a finding that landed against a backdrop of persistent complaints about workload and a pay satisfaction score of just 69 out of 100.

The bonus relief, however, collides with the math on base pay. According to Odyssey Search Partners' 2021 survey, first-year Goldman analysts earn a $110,000 base salary, putting them on par with bulge-bracket peers JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley but well below boutiques. Centerview reportedly pays its first-years $130,000 before bonuses. At Goldman's reported 98-hour workweek, that $110,000 base works out to roughly $22 an hour before bonuses and taxes, assuming two weeks of vacation — "about the same wage as a Starbucks manager, according to Indeed," as the original Insider analysis noted.

The 98-hour figure comes from Odyssey Search Partners' latest survey of junior bankers at nine bulge-bracket firms, in which Goldman topped the chart. Odyssey, a Wall Street recruiting firm run by Anthony Keizner and Adam Kahn, conducts the survey annually to map the talent pool and shares the results with private equity firms and other clients looking to recruit from banks. For context, Credit Suisse bankers, working fewer hours, were calculated at close to $34 an hour before bonuses under the same two-weeks-vacation assumption.

Goldman disputed the hours data. A Goldman spokesperson told Insider the "data does not match ours" and declined to share the firm's own findings on junior banker working hours — leaving the gap between Odyssey's numbers and Goldman's internal figures unresolved.

The hours question carries particular weight given what happened the year before. Goldman junior bankers banded together in what Insider described as an uprising, venting to management about "inhumane" working conditions. One analyst said her experience at the bank was worse than growing up in the foster care system. That 98-hour-week figure, if accurate, suggests the conditions that sparked that revolt have not meaningfully changed, even as the bonus round came in better than feared.

The tension between a stronger-than-expected bonus and a stubbornly high workload defines the mood for Goldman's junior class heading into 2026. Better bonuses soften the blow; they don't shorten the week.