Goldman Sachs hikes CEO David Solomon's pay 21% to record $47 million

By Todd Gillespie

 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted Chief Executive Officer David Solomon’s pay to $47 million, his biggest award ever and capping a year in which the investment bank’s shares soared and its leader reasserted his control at the top. 

The board handed Solomon a $2 million base salary and $45 million as a bonus in the form of shares, cash and carried interest, according to a filing Friday. That’s a 21 per cent increase from his 2024 pay, when he was awarded a $39 million package, as well as a major multiyear retention bonus.

 

The figure came in higher than the $43 million awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon for 2025. Both executives were paid the same for 2024.

 

Under Solomon’s leadership last year, Goldman posted record revenue in its banking and markets division and record management fees in its asset-management business.

 

Aided by a growing US economy and lighter regulatory environment, its shares rose by nearly 54 per cent last year, ahead of rivals Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, though behind Citigroup Inc.

 

Solomon’s pay package follows the announcement last year of a pair of $80 million retention awards to the CEO and John Waldron, the firm’s president. Those bonuses, which were approved by a shareholder vote in April despite controversy over their size and structure, will vest in January 2030 and were widely seen as a move to keep Waldron at the firm to be Solomon’s eventual successor.

 

With Goldman’s share surge, the awards have already risen in value by about 50 per cent since their grant date in January last year.

 

Along with those grants, the firm launched a program to give some of its top leaders a slice of carried interest earned on its private-markets funds run in the asset-management business.