“Investment bankers – they make a lot of money, but when you consider how many hours they work, it’s basically minimum wage” – Quora user
This will be a simple spreadsheet to either prove or disprove that statement. The only logic we’ll employ here is the power of division.
Spreadsheet Inputs
Investment banker salary: According to Wall Street Oasis, this appears to be about $110k all in for a 1st year analyst.
Hours worked per week: Legend has it that bankers often work 80-100 hours per week.
Spreadsheet Logic and Outputs
We multiply the weekly hours by 51 (assuming one week of vacation) to get annual hours worked, then divide the annual salary by annual hours to get average hourly pay. The total comes to $24, which is well above minimum wage, especially considering the benefits like healthcare and 401k match, and that the salary appears to double by year 3.
Just for kicks, let’s say that first year analyst becomes a managing director someday…$1000 an hour!
