Median salaries fell for the second consecutive year in 2016 down to $84,000 (£66,772) with the median bonus falling from $20,000 (£15,900) in 2014 to $15,000 (£12,000) last year.
The figures, compiled by salary research firm Emolument, showed a sharp 18% drop in median salaries for all jobs in the industry between 2014 and 2015 as regulatory changes and a shift towards passive funds started to cut into the revenues at asset management firms.
Adrian Lowcock, investment director at Architas, put flat-lining salaries of some employees down to the “knock on” effect of the 2008 financial crisis which he said had “affected the asset management industry even though it had nothing to do with it”.
Pressures from the consumer side have also played a part in restricting revenue and salary increases following the 2012 Retail Distribution Review and the shift towards passive funds. “There’s a general pressure on costs overall and a lot of the national press were championing lower costs for clients so there’s been a lot of pressure from the consumer side,” Lowcock said.
He added: “The knock-on effect is that asset managers see more pressure on revenue. There’s also been a price war with passive funds going on for a number of years, active managers are now seeing that cost issue filter through.”
In the UK, the age of eye-watering annual salary hikes and bonus payments appears to have stalled as a result of the pressures on profits with associate salaries down 4% year-on-year and analysts’ pay packets stagnating with just a 3% increase since 2015.
However, UK fund manager directors are doing better than their US counterparts in spite of the challenges, with their median salary jumping 20% in 2016 while directors of firms across the pond saw their median salaries drop 1%.
