Lazard is boosting first-year investment-banking analyst base salary to $100,000, as Wall Street’s pay raise frenzy continues

• Lazard is raising junior investment banker compensation.
• First-year analysts will make $100,000 in base salary going forward.
• Second- and third-year analysts will make $110,000 in base comp.

Lazard is raising base comp for junior investment bankers in the US, a person familiar with the matter told Insider on Tuesday.

The firm is raising first-year analyst salary to $100,000; second-year salary to $110,000, and third-year salary to $110,000 as well.

Salaries will go into effect as of the August 13 payroll and be retroactive as of July 1, the source confirmed.

The memo added that bonuses for the year ending June 30 will be awarded to investment-banking analysts during the week of August 9.

The news was communicated in an internal memo sent on Thursday by Jason Bernhard, vice chairman and COO of Lazard’s financial advisory division in North America.

Speaking on the firm’s second-quarter earnings call in July, Lazard CEO Ken Jacobs addressed what he called “a tough environment” for attracting and hanging onto competitive talent, though he wasn’t speaking about junior bankers, specifically. He noted that the firm had made numerous senior hires throughout the year, and expressed enthusiasm for the firm’s growth prospects, Insider reported.

Banks have been bumping juniors’ comp throughout the spring and summer

Lazard’s comp increase follows an earlier move by Goldman Sachs.

Insider first reported on Sunday that Goldman has raised investment-banking compensation for some analysts and associates, including second-year analysts who will make $125,000 in base salary, and first-year associates who will make $150,000 going forward.

Other banks like Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, as well as William Blair and PJ Solomon, have also jumped on the pay raise train.

Insider first reported in late July that Morgan Stanley raised first- and second-year analyst salaries to $100,000 and $105,000, respectively, for employees in its investment-banking and global-capital-markets divisions.

William Blair bumped first-year analyst comp to $110,000, second-year comp to $115,000, and third-year comp to $125,000, Insider also reported in late July. Those adjustments put the Chicago-based advisor slightly ahead of many other players in the market, though not Goldman.

PJ Solomon set first-year analyst comp to $100,000, and second-year comp to $105,000. Third-year analyst comp will match Lazard’s at $110,000.

Banks have been raising salaries for their juniors throughout the spring and summer, as a tight labor market has driven firms to rethink how they retain employees, and sentiments of burnout and frustration have been rife throughout the industry.