It's not just bonuses but also routine pay rises that may be becoming harder to reach in banking and finance.
Wage growth in the financial and insurance sector (for private not public firms) was 2.4 per cent over the year to June 2019, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday, in line with the economy-wide average. This was up from a rise of 2.0 per cent in the year to 2018, which was the lowest level of wage rises ever recorded in finance over the 20 years for which the ABS produces data.
But over the September 2019 quarter - a period during which banks at least felt greater pain on interest margins - wages in the finance sector advanced by only 0.2 per cent, on "original" data with no seasonal adjustment.
The all industries average rise in pay during the quarter was 0.9 per cent.
In rental, hiring and real estate services the pay gain over 3 months was 1.1 per cent, more than five times that in the finance sector.
Most larger banks now align their annual cost of living increases (as they were once known) with their financial years, so the next quarter's ABS wage data for finance may not look so stingy.
Julia Angrisano, national secretary of the Finance Sector Union told Banking Day "the FSU has been actively pursuing and winning enterprise bargaining claims of around 3.5 per cent over the past year.
"Westpac employees covered by the EBA achieved a 3.25 per cent increase in the latest agreement, ANZ and CBA bank workers covered by the EBA have received a 3 per cent increase.
"The latest quarter ABS pay figures are likely to reflect the situation staff who are not covered by the pay provisions in enterprise agreements find themselves.
"The FSU will be pursuing pay claims for those workers covered by individual arrangements who we believe should be receiving their fair share of bank profits."