Morgan Stanley first-year and second-year earnings scenarios| Scenario | Base | Signing bonus | Year-end bonus | Total | Weekly |
|---|
| First year, low end | $110,000 | $10,000 | $45,000 | $165,000 | $3,173 |
| First year, high end | $110,000 | $10,000 | $75,000 | $195,000 | $3,750 |
| First year, market average | $110,000 | $10,000 | $67,000 | $187,000 | $3,596 |
| Second year | $125,000 | None | $88,000 | $213,000 | $4,096 |
| Third year, strong performer | About $135,000 | None | About $115,000 | About $250,000 | $4,808 |
One thing to note about the associate level. Most banks promote analysts after two years, so third-year analysts are rare, and the $250,000 figure for a strong performer in year three sits closer to an associate band than it first appears.
What happens after the first two years?
The ladder above the analyst level is published in the filings, and it climbs steeply.
Median base salaries filed by Morgan Stanley and Co. LLC for US roles between January 2025 and June 2026 put an analyst at $110,000, an associate at $175,000, a vice president at $225,000, an executive director at $300,000 and a managing director at $400,000.
Those are base figures, and the gap between them is what a career is measured on. Total compensation for a first-year associate runs in the $345,000 to $395,000 range, with a meaningful jump in year two, and the top performers reach $250,000 by their third year as an analyst.
One structural note. Morgan Stanley operates an enormous wealth management business, and that is why the bonus distribution is described as more predictable and less volatile than the one
at a pure investment bank. Fee-based earnings do not move with the deal cycle, and a colleague whose group sits inside that business is working in a steadier pool.
Median base salaries filed by Morgan Stanley and Co. LLC in the United States| Level | Median base | Annual increase |
|---|
| Analyst | $110,000 | Starting point |
| Associate | $175,000 | +$65,000 |
| Vice President | $225,000 | +$50,000 |
| Executive Director | $300,000 | +$75,000 |
| Managing Director | $400,000 | +$100,000 |
The family building benefit is the line worth reading twice. A $75,000 lifetime maximum is a different structure from a per-event reimbursement, because it can be used across fertility treatment, adoption or surrogacy without a fresh approval each time.
What benefits come with a Morgan Stanley job?
The family package is the strongest in this series, with 16 weeks of paid parental leave for every parent and a $75,000 lifetime family building benefit.
Parental leave runs 16 weeks for all parents, with 6 to 8 additional weeks of medical leave following pregnancy, and colleagues also get 4 weeks of paid leave to care for a seriously ill family member.
The family building benefit runs to a $75,000 lifetime maximum and covers adoption, surrogacy and fertility treatments including IVF, egg and sperm freezing and 12 months of storage. Dependent day care flexible spending accounts help with preschool, before and after school care, child care and summer camp.
The details that colleagues mention are the ones a benefits summary rarely lists: lactation rooms, breast-milk shipping, and a silver baby spoon engraved with the child name.
What the Morgan Stanley family and benefits package covers| Area | What it includes |
|---|
| Paid parental leave | 16 weeks for all parents, plus 6 to 8 additional weeks of medical leave following pregnancy |
| Caregiver leave | 4 weeks of paid leave to care for a seriously ill family member |
| Family building | $75,000 lifetime maximum benefit for adoption, surrogacy and fertility treatments, IVF, egg and sperm freezing and 12 months of storage |
| Childcare | Dependent day care flexible spending accounts covering preschool, before and after school care, child care and summer camp |
| Everyday support | Lactation rooms, breast-milk shipping, and an engraved silver baby spoon |
The caregiver leave is the one that separates this package from a standard parental leave plan, because it applies to a seriously ill family member rather than only to a new child.
How does Morgan Stanley compare with other financial services employers?
On total compensation Morgan Stanley is second of the five bulge bracket banks and level with Goldman Sachs on base, and on family benefits it is first in this entire series.
Against the asset managers and brokerages, the analyst band is roughly twice the service rate. Fidelity pays about $33.83 an hour for a financial customer associate, Vanguard starts at $52,265 a year and Schwab starts training at $26.01 an hour, while a Morgan Stanley analyst starts at $110,000.
The leave comparison is where the gap is widest. Sixteen weeks of paid parental leave for every parent is longer than the 12 weeks at Centene for a
birth parent, the 10 weeks at MetLife and the 8 weeks of caregiver leave at Cigna, and it is the longest of any employer covered so far.
Starting pay compared across the financial services employers in this series| Employer | Starting figure | Annual equivalent | Paid parental leave |
|---|
| Morgan Stanley, analyst | $110,000 base | $110,000 before bonus | 16 weeks for all parents |
| Goldman Sachs, analyst | $110,000 base | $110,000 before bonus | Covered in the US benefits programme |
| BlackRock, analyst | About $118,000 base on the technology track | $118,000 before bonus | Not published in this series |
| Vanguard, client services associate | About $25.13 an hour | $52,265 | Paid family care leave |
| Charles Schwab, financial service representative | $26.01 an hour | $54,101 | 6 weeks |
| Fidelity Investments, financial customer associate | About $33.83 an hour | $70,370 | Fully paid parental leave |
The Morgan Stanley analyst starting salary range is therefore the most balanced offer in the bulge bracket, with the second-highest total, the most predictable bonus and the strongest family package.
What should you ask before accepting an analyst offer?
Four questions cover almost all of the value, and three of them are about the group rather than the firm.
Ask which group the role sits in and what that group paid in bonus last year, because the group number is what the pool is built from and it is the difference between a $45,000 bonus and a $75,000 one.
Ask when the signing bonus is paid and whether it is clawed back, because a $10,000 payment with a two-year repayment clause is a loan rather than a gift.
Then ask when the promotion decision comes. Most banks promote analysts after two years, which means the associate band of $345,000 to $395,000 in total compensation is two years away rather than three.
The last piece of practical advice is about the bonus conversation itself. Ask what the group paid last year, and treat any number offered for a future year as an estimate rather than a promise.
What happens to Morgan Stanley analyst pay next?
Expect the base to hold at $110,000 while the bonus range does the moving, because that is how the market has behaved for three years.
Two forces are at work. The deal cycle decides the bonus pool, and the talent war decides how much of that pool goes to the first-year cohort. Bonuses rose 10 to 15 percent in 2025 while bases stayed flat, and the incentive structure at the major firms has not changed.
The signing bonus is the part most likely to be competed on. It is the only element of the first-year package that a firm can improve without moving a published base salary, and it is the one that survives a bad market year.
Next steps
Price the base, the signing bonus and the bonus range separately, and ask which group the role sits in.
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Fazlur Rahman
