The worst paid hedge fund workers in Britain still earn over £90,000 a year

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The most lowly worker in Britain’s hedge fund sector can still earn over £90,000 ($129,729) a year, according to new data released by salary benchmarking site Emolument.

That’s over three times the average UK salary.

Emolument compiled data from more than 2,200 people in the fund management industry and found that people working as entry-level associates at a British hedge funds earn on average £94,750 per year.

By comparison, the national average wage for all ages is roughly at £26,500, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Not only do hedge funders make way more money than the average Brit, they also earn around £20,000 more than their colleagues at more traditional asset management companies, which run mutual funds and ETFs. Associates in these companies earn £74,000 on average. That gap only increases as seniority increases.

Directors take home £277,000 at hedge funds, compared to just £180,000 at asset managers, while managing directors pocket £294,000 compared to £237,000.

Emolument’s data also throws up some interesting differences between Europe and the USA when it comes to pay levels in the fund management industry. For example, VPs take home about £107,000 in Europe, compared to £142,000 stateside.

While making £95,000 when you’re in your 20s might seem like a pretty good deal, the salary is substantially lower than what similar employees can make in the banking sector. According to previous data released by Emolument, associates working for big American banks in the UK can easily pick up more than £100,000, with Morgan Stanley’s associates taking home an average of £136,000 every year.

Commenting on the site’s findings, co-founder and chief operating officer Alice Leguay said:

With the intensification of the regulatory environment, to many, hedge funds are perceived as a heaven with less stringent risk management processes than banks or asset management firms and where a regular adrenaline rush is still part of daily working life. The attraction also lies in the possibility of earning very large bonuses at hedge funds early on compared to a constrained earning trajectory following a tiresome hierarchical process in many of the larger and more regulated institutions.