Chart of the Day: Life is Good on Wall Street

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Via Catherine Rampell, this chart shows the growth of Wall Street salaries compared to the salaries of everyone else in New York. It comes from an annual report by the New York State comptroller, and in my continuing quest to add value to other people’s charts, I’ve adjusted the beginning numbers for inflation so you can see the growth rate more clearly. Wall Street salaries have risen 11.2% per year, while all other salaries have risen 1.8% per year.

Note also that after nearly destroying the world in 2008 and seeing their average salaries plummet to a mere $310,000 a year, things have already rebounded nicely for Wall Street. I guess it’s because they’ve done such a great job of getting the economy moving again.

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