Managing directors have faired even better, with a 21% increase in take-home pay. That's £237,000 a year. Nice.
The new report by recruitment firm Astbury Marsden has the skinny on the wages of some 11,000 workers across 80 companies. Despite the increases in base pay, earnings have actually gone down in the past six months. Monstrous bonuses have been slashed to the bone and financial services firms have tried to compensate by upping base pay.
Mark Cameron, Astbury Marsden COO, says: 'Standard practice in the banking sector when you are trying to recruit senior executives had been to buy out their current bonus and offer them a guaranteed bonus. As the banks can no longer offer those kinds of packages because of changes to the FSA's Remuneration Code, they are forced to attract talent by offering high base salaries.'
And the best way to secure a whopping base salary is to move companies. The biggest average pay increases were for City workers who changed jobs - up 20%. If you got promoted within your firm, pay rises were at the 15% mark. City workers who stayed put saw earnings go up by 8%.
As the average wage for a UK worker stands at £25,900 a year, it still pays to work in the City.
