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Goldman Sachs paid chief executive David Solomon $47mn last year, up 21 per cent from 2024 and his highest remuneration since he took the helm at the Wall Street bank in 2018.
In a filing on Friday, Goldman said Solomon earned a base salary of $2mn plus a $10.1mn cash bonus, $31.5mn in stock and $3.4mn in carried interest from the funds the bank manages. The carried interest portion of Solomon’s pay was added a year ago.
The pay increase roughly mirrored a 20 per cent increase in profits for Goldman in 2025 but was greater than the 13 per cent rise in overall spending at the bank on pay and benefits for all of last year.
Goldman said its compensation committee considered, among other factors, “the firm’s financial performance, both on an absolute basis and relative to peer results as well as in the context of the 2025 operating environment and longer-term results”.
Solomon’s pay eclipses the $43mn earned by JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon last year, which it disclosed on Thursday. In 2024, the two executives were both paid $39mn.
It reflects the strength of Solomon’s position at Goldman after he weathered heavy criticism in 2022 and 2023 over his strategy for the bank’s lossmaking consumer business.
The millions paid in carried interest also points to how Goldman has started to pay its senior leaders in the same way as large asset managers. Goldman has said it has needed to change its compensation framework to retain its top talent.
Goldman shares rose more than 50 per cent in 2025, boosted by the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda and an improving outlook for investment banking.
