Mean Salary at Goldman Sachs last year was $650K. Obviously, the distribution is non-gaussian, so the median salary is significantly lower.

Meaning, you start working at GS for $100K/year, because, in a few years (if you're good) you'll grow to the $1M+ category. On a risk-adjusted basis, ibanking is the most lucrative profession.

I'm not disputing that the salaries are high; I'm saying that the high salaries do not fit with the demand for the job.

There has to be another filter at work. Specifically, I suspect that luck plays a highly significant role.

Luck and Survival... Jungle smarts. Desire to become BSDs

Liar's Poker is an excellent first-person view of the NSFW work environment at Salomon Brothers.

But don't read LP - read Fiaz's top-rated (34-point) personal story of becoming a trader: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413

"After racking up some rather hefty losses, I was determined to quit at one point during month four, but because I had a habit of waking up at 4:30 am I simply "forgot" that the night before I told myself I would quit and spare myself further humiliation...by then I was warned that I was now on the red list of traders ready to be cut."

They need something to attract the talent and make them "climb the walls" for the position, especially investment banks where the work can be extremely tedious.