This just up on The Wall Street Journal website:

About three dozen of the top publicly held securities and investment-services firms—which include banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money-management firms and securities exchanges—are set to pay $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year, a 4% increase from the $139 billion paid out in 2009, according to the survey. Compensation was expected to rise at 26 of the 35 firms.

The data showed that revenue was expected to rise at 29 of the 35 firms surveyed, but at a slower pace than pay. Wall Street revenue is expected to rise 3%, to $448 billion from $433 billion, despite a slowdown in some high-profile activities like stock and bond trading.

  And performance doesn’t even have to increase:

Goldman’s revenue is expected to decline by 13.5% this year to $39.1 billion from $45.2 billion in 2009. Compensation remains projected higher than last year, up 3.7% to $16.8 billion, from $16.2 billion in 2009, according to the Journal survey. Through the first half of 2010, Goldman Sachs set aside 43% of its revenue for compensation. Goldman’s ultimate payouts could change drastically. In 2009, for example, it withheld revenue for compensation in the fourth quarter, dropping the overall ratio of revenue to compensation. [emphasis added]

  A couple of other examples, including Blackstone, the firm that enriched Pete Peterson, the man driving the attack against Social Security:

At Blackstone, revenue is projected to be up 50% to $2.7 billion, from $1.8 billion in 2009. The Journal survey estimates that compensation will climb 12% in the year. At Fortress, which has closed two new funds this year, compensation is projected to climb by 29% to $656 million, from $505 million last year. Revenue is projected to rise 16.6%, to $680.8 million from $584 million in 2009, analysts say.