Wall St. bonuses up by 17 percent in 2009

Wall Street executives raked in $20 billion in bonuses last year, an increase of about 17 percent, according to New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Total compensation also towered past the $55 billion mark at some of the country’s largest securities firms, he told the Associated Press on Tuesday, later stressing the need for immediate executive pay reforms.

{mosads}”Wall Street is vital to New York’s economy, and the dollars generated by the industry help the state’s bottom line,” DiNapoli said. “But for most Americans, these huge bonuses are a bitter pill and hard to comprehend…”

“Taxpayers bailed them out, and now they’re back making money while many New York families are still struggling to make ends meet,” he continued.

Ultimately, those two figures are likely to return the debate over executive compensation to the political foreground.

White House officials and members of Congress have each taken their shots this year at Wall Street executives and their historically high bonuses, seeking to demonstrate their populist bona fides in a tough election year.

Together, they charge it is unfair for those firms to offer sizable compensation packages to most employees, who many say took the risks that prompted two taxpayer bailouts at the height of the 2008 economic crisis.

Still, lawmakers have yet to legislate an end to those bonuses, though ideas to cap those annual sums do number many.

Some Democrats have signaled a willingness to tie executive bonuses with companies’ profits, requiring CEOs and other employees to collect additional compensation only when their companies prosper. Others, including the White House, have suggested reforms that would strengthen firms’ boards of trustees, and thus, oversight over their bonuses.