V.I.P.s: “Banks are acutely aware of the importance of junior bankers, and they generally took good care of them in 2005-as they did in 2004. Some VPs got increases of as much as 25%, according to compensation experts.” (IDD via FierceFinance)

~~~~~

RAINMAKERS: Top 10 traders (#1 is T. Boone Pickens w/$1.5BN in income), Top 10 hedge fund traders, Top 10 Wall St. traders…. Trader Daily (reg required)

~~~~~

SEE CEO RUN: Venture-capital backed firms paid their CEOs a median salary of $263,000, up about $10,000 from last year, according to VentureOne/CompensationPro. SoCal, NorCal and NY led the pack.

~~~~~

FEELING LOWLY?: One Vault poster sez:” Second year associate last year roughly made in the range of $300-$350. Third year midpoint last year was $375-$420.”

~~~~~

WAGE SLAVE: What’s your hourly? The NY Post reports that NY execs earn about $63/hour, compared to doctors/lawyers who get $52/hour.

COULD BE WORSE: PhD = minimum wage advertising assistant??? Shudder.

~~~~~

STATUS IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR HEALTH: “”Given the animal results,’ Angus Deaton, a Princeton economist who is an expert on poverty, wrote in a recent paper about relative deprivation and mortality, ‘the degree to which low rank is harmful to an individual is likely to depend on the number of people of higher rank, because each such person is in a position to deliver the threats, insults, enforced obeisance, or ultimate violence that generate stress. Individuals who are insulted by those immediately above them insult those immediately below them, generating a cascade of threats and violence through which low-ranked individuals feel the burden, not just of their immediate superiors, but of the whole hierarchy above them.’” [emphasis added] (New Yorker)

~~~~~

WHE’ MY LIFE AT??: Do you feel this way? Sometimes, I do…. “So, I let life get in the way…finances, creeping age, health issues, and breaking hearts. I keep myself boxed in and pretend to myself and others that my life, as it is, is what I want.” CL)

~~~~~

And Lastly … SUCKY: We knew it. The average joe thinks OfficePirates blows.