As Corporations Plead For Taxpayer Bailouts, Goldman Sachs Gives CEO 20% Pay Bounce

Goldman Sachs gave CEO David Solomon a 20% raise to a head-spinning  $27.5 million in assets and cash for his work last year, the company revealed.

The news comes as the Trump administration weighs massive industry bailouts amid the coronavirus crisis — and triggers memories of the Wall Street bailout, which included $10 billion for Goldman Sachs.

Solomon’s compensation for 2019 includes $2 million in salary, more than $15 million in stock and a $7.7 million cash bonus , the company reported Friday.

Former company CEO Lloyd Blankfein took in a record $41 million in compensation in 2008. (Blankfein said last month that he might vote for Donald Trump if Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) became the Democratic presidential nominee.) Solomon is the second-highest-paid CEO in company history.

Bonuses for company employees shrank during the same period, and Goldman Sachs’ profits fell to a four-year low, reports The Wall Street Journal . The company also set aside $1.1 billion for a hoped-for settlement with U.S. regulators over the role it played in a Malaysian corruption scandal.

Goldman Sachs collected $10 billion from U.S. taxpayers  as part of the $700 billion bailout of the banking industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis — created by banks and investment companies.

Americans are still stewed about that, according to Dennis Kelleher, the president of the nonprofit Better Markets , which advocates for more regulation in the finance industry. “There is still a strong view in this country that in 2008, Wall Street got bailed out and Main Street got the bill,” he told The New York Times .

Democrats are insisting now that any business getting federal financial help for the coronavirus crisis include restrictions on stock buybacks and executive compensation — and required provisions for worker support.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned: “We’re not doing no-strings-attached bailouts that enrich shareholders or pay CEO bonuses. Period.”