Boo-Hoo! Goldman Sachs CEO Pay Fell Off a Cliff

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) cut CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein’s 2011 compensation by 35 percent after the firm suffered profit losses and a drop in stock price.

Blankfein was paid a total of $12.4 million in 2011, a reduction from his 2010 compensation of $19.1 million. In 2011, he was paid a $2 million salary, a $3 million cash bonus, $7 million in restricted stock and $449,600 in other benefits. The compensation reduction was based on company performance that included a 47 percent drop in earnings, 46 percent decline in share price, and the loss of 2,400 jobs.

CFO David A. Viniar, President, COO Gary D. Cohn, and Vice Chairmen J. Michael Evans and John S. Weinberg all earned $11.5 million plus benefits in 2011. Their awards also included $3 million cash bonuses and $7 million in restricted stock.

According to a proxy, Blankfein and 10 deputies earned a total of $107.8 million in 2011 from investments in private equity and hedge funds managed by Goldman Sachs.

The 2011 compensation of chief executives at comparable firms included a $10.5 million package for James Gorman of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), $15 million for Vikram Pandit of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), and $23 million for Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM).