This is probably an extreme case. Most boutique banks pay salaries that are closer to the base salaries at large banks, though bonuses tend to be significantly lower. However, it’s pretty normal for tiny firms to offer only unpaid internships, which is almost what happened here. Whether or not it’s worth accepting depends on your experience, other options, and how much you want to get into IB… in most cases, I’d say it’s not worth it if you can get a decent-paying job in a related firm/industry such as a Big 4 firm, corporate banking, etc.

Brian,

Thanks, I appreciate the clarification. How frequently does a situation like that occur, where the pay is peanuts at a small boutique?

That figure was a rough estimate from me – the interviewee did not disclose his exact pay, but said it was close to minimum wage, so I just made an estimate. After taxes, $36K in NYC is around $27-$28K, so more like a 20-25% drop (https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-tax-calculator#GEdwr0zv0b). However, he usually had other sources of income, which added significantly to that.

I think they could justify that little in compensation because it was a tiny boutique with only senior bankers, and so they didn’t have to comply with company-wide or industry-wide norms. Plus, the interviewee had not had any relevant experience before this.