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NEW YORK - GOLDMAN Sachs Group, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, awarded US$67.5 million (S$93.6 million) each to co-presidents Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried, as the company evaded the mortgage losses spreading through the economy.
Mr Gary Cohn, 47, and Mr Jon Winkelried, 48, received 40 per cent of their compensation in cash and 60 per cent in restricted stock and options, New York-based Goldman said last Friday in a proxy filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The figure means their pay has risen by 27 per cent from the prior year.
The payouts amount to US$185,000 (S$256,500) per day per person, including weekends. The median annual income of United States households was US$48,201 in 2006, according to the most recent figures available from the US Census Bureau.
The awards 'are not doing anything to take the focus off executive compensation,' said Ms Laura Thatcher, who heads the executive pay practice at the Alston & Bird law firm in Atlanta.
'Those numbers are innately high.'
Goldman set a record for Wall Street last December when it granted chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Lloyd Blankfein US$68.5 million in salary and bonuses for last year, topping the prior year's US$54 million award.
Goldman's 22 per cent jump in profit and 7.9 per cent share-price gain last year helped it outpace Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, both of which ousted their CEOs after posting losses from the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market.
Mr Charles Prince, the former Citigroup CEO, and Mr Stan O'Neal, who lost the top post at Merrill, testified in Washington last Friday at a congressional hearing on executive pay.
Lawmakers criticised the two executives, along with Countrywide Financial chief Angelo Mozilo, for reaping hundreds of millions of dollars while shareholders bore the brunt of write-downs on mortgage assets and credit losses.
'There seem to be two different economic realities operating in our country,' said Mr Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
'Most Americans live in a world where economic security is precarious. But our nation's top executives seem to live by a separate set of rules.'
Mr O'Neal resigned from Merrill in October with a US$161.5 million package including stock bonuses from prior years.
Mr Prince kept about US$30 million of stock and options when he stepped down the following month.
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