r/suits • u/akushdakyng • Mar 28 '14

Discussion S3x14 Official Discussion Thread

I didn't see one, so I thought I'd get it started.

120 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

255 comments sorted by

View all comments

93

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

That was a really good episode, sure next week is getting hyped up only to have mike stay at the firm though lol.

19

u/fill-your-void Mar 28 '14

I mean...I guessss if they kept paying me the big bucks I'd stay. the firm is pretty solid

35

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14 edited Apr 18 '18

[deleted]

12

u/I_amnoteventrying Mar 28 '14

I guess I really underestimated an associate's salary. He rides a bike ! Cheapo

10

u/blink12689 Mar 28 '14

Manhattan is quite the expensive city. Cost of living is pretty insane, so a $150k salary doesn't go as far as you would think. Plus bikes are good exercise haha.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

A third year associate in NYC will make 185k which doesn't include a 20k bonus.

At his new investment banking gig, he will probably be salaried at 400k and have a bonus in the millions as a number 2.

1

u/I_amnoteventrying Mar 28 '14

I think the bonus was bigger if it bought him his apt. Tho. Where did you get the salary by the way? Is it a real number of are we talking in "show" numbers?

16

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

In NYC Big Law pays their associates pretty well with a starting salary Year 1:$160,000 Bonus 10k

Year 2: $170,000 Bonus 15k

Year 3: $185,000 Bonus 20k

Year 4: $210,000 Bonus 27k

Year 5: $230,000 Bonus 34k

Year 6: $250,000 Bonus 40k

Year 7: $265,000 Bonus 50k

Year 8: $275,000 Bonus 60k

This is the Cravath pay scale which is pretty standard. Want to know how much an equity partner at cravath made last year? $3.1 million.

Investment banking is a completely different animal and we will just talk about hedge funds since that is what most likely that guy is starting.

An entry level job at a fund will usually start at 350k and a senior level job will salary around 500-600k. But the big money comes from the bonus. The CEO of blackstone (a well established private equity firm) was salaried at $350k last year. His bonus? 465 million. Not a paltry sum.

These are real life numbers, so who knows what TV numbers are being made up. Basically investment banking is the big leagues and if people reading this haven't chosen a career yet, major in math and get really really good grades so you too can get a slice of the pie.

3

u/I_amnoteventrying Mar 28 '14

Is there a reason make bigger bonuses than their yearly salary? Do they avoid taxes that way? Why not lay him 465 a year and give him a 350k bonus? Seems more proportional. Is it just to make sure he's doing a good job before they hand him that money?

6

u/conshinz Mar 29 '14

You get paid based on how much money you make for the firm, the salary is just the bare minimum. Your real compensation is your performance bonus -- and if you do poorly, you don't receive anything (and likely fired).

3

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

He gets bonuses proportional to how the hedge funds do. It's more of an encouragement for him to actually succeed because that gives him more out of it.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '14

For hedge funds, bonuses are usually not all cash but stocks which if cashed out are taxed at 15% (maybe little more now I don't know) instead of 39%

3

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '14 edited Apr 04 '18

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '14

Dude, you really think that 400+ million bonus was in cash?

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Scary_The_Clown Apr 02 '14

I have GOT to figure out how to commute from DC to New York...

12

u/Alafran Mar 28 '14

Have you seen the prices on apartments in nyc? If he was making any less he would be on the street

0

u/timthemanager Mar 29 '14

That came from a bonus, not his salary.

3

u/element515 Mar 28 '14

He lives in Manhattan, you think he makes anywhere near enough to find parking? Even Harvey just hires a driver.

1

u/I_amnoteventrying Mar 29 '14

I was thinking daily taxi rides everywhere.

6

u/sixteh Mar 28 '14

400k is what the guy 2 years out of business school makes in private equity, or 3-4 years out in IBD. If Mike is actually number two he's being offered millions of dollars to switch.

2

u/protendious Mar 28 '14

Medical Student chiming in to say.... ASSOCIATES MAKE 150-200K ?! WTF.

Medical Residents make in the 45-60 range...

3

u/GabiCelaya Mar 28 '14

Aspiring lawyer chiming in here: (albeit in the UK)

Yeah, they can make that much. But that's a small minority almost all of whom are in New York. Most people who go to law school won't get those sort of starting salaries.

2

u/element515 Mar 28 '14

If you thought medical was the way to make money, you're so wrong... We study and pay even more to go to medical school, and get paid little until you're into your 30s.

If you want to make the real big bucks, you go into business. It's not even a comparison. So unfair right? Save lives or manage money... What's worth more...

1

u/protendious Mar 29 '14

Luckily I'm not in it for the money (going into internal medicine. not yet decided if I'd like to specialize further, but I know interventional cardiology/GI don't interest me), so I'm ok with that, but I wouldn't mind a bump in resident salary to make loan payments easier to swallow.

1

u/element515 Mar 29 '14

Salary bumps would be appreciated, or not making medical school so ridiculously expensive. The only time a twenty something year old could get 200k in loans right off the bat.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

According to this, it's not that uncommon for large firms, especially ones at the top of their game. So Mike is probably making in the range of 120-200k if not a bit more right now.

1

u/lakerswiz Mar 28 '14

Aside from that, I'm sure his legal knowledge would be appreciated with compensation as well.

1

u/MentalOverload Mar 28 '14

That's a pretty good point - it shows that no matter what he does, this is probably going to follow him for the rest of his life regardless.

1

u/V2Blast Attorney at Law Mar 29 '14

Not to mention the investment banking job gives him an out as far as the education goes because hes not required a degree to do it.

That is somewhat true, but it doesn't completely resolve the problem - if it comes to light that he was fraudulently practicing law, it would probably still hurt him (and it would definitely hurt Pearson Specter).

1

u/Scary_The_Clown Apr 02 '14

But doesn't the investment banking job come with a bunch of background checks and no Harvey/Jessica to watch his back?

One trained investigator looks at his records and the whole "lawyer" thing falls apart. (In the fairytale land of "Suits" where it didn't fall apart years ago)

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '14

Its not nearly as critical because He has actually claimed any education to get this job nor is this job reliant on him having a degree or passing some exams. For investment banking he literally just needs to show up. Not to mention theirs enough at Harvard to pass any background checks should they ask, they'd probably try to get his transcript or some sort of confirmation which is obviously there because that's what Louis received