[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Goldman Sachs the 5th-biggest U.S. bank by assets took hits in 2011  - revenues dropped, 2,400 employees were terminated, and payrolls were slashed - even though 2011 started out strong.  With the books closed for the first quarter of 2012, Goldman is continuing to take a hard line on compensation.  In Q1 of 2012, the Wall Street firm set aside $4.4bn for salaries, benefits and accruals for year-end bonuses, which reflects a 16% drop from a year earlier. Sliding Scale. Traditionally, Wall Street firms set aside a portion of revenue throughout the year for bonuses, allowing them to increase or decrease pay in line with performance. Having set aside $4.4 billion in Q1 of 2012 for employee compensation including year-end bonuses, the numbers work out to an average of $135,123.  This is less than the numbers for 2011 - when the firm set aside $5.23 billion for employees in Q1 of 2011, which averaged out to $147,825 for each of the 35,400 employees at the time. However, average pay is derived by dividing total compensation and benefits by the number of employees, thus it doesn’t represent what workers actually receive.  Although Wall Street firms including Goldman have reduced jobs and compensation to preserve profit, and Europe's debt crisis, new regulations, and slow economic growth have taken their toll, CEO pay at Goldman is still flying high. What Lloyd Blankfein is Getting. For its CEO, Goldman set aside 44% of revenue, about the same as in the first quarter of 2011.  Although initial reports showed that Mr. Blankfein, 57, received a 35% cut in his own compensation for last year to $12.4 million, it was later revealed that he received an increase from the year before [BEHIND THE NEWS, Goldman’s $12 Million Man Was Really a $16 Million Man!??]. Across the Street, JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. lender by assets, reported record earnings, which translated to $23 million in pay and bonuses for 2011 for CEO Jamie Dimon. However, like Goldman, among non-CEO employees, compensation at JPMorgan’s investment bank fell 12% to $2.9 billion in the first quarter, according to figures posted on the New York- based firm’s website last week.  Bloomberg calculated that the expense, which includes salaries, bonuses and benefits, was enough to pay each of the division’s 25,707 workers an average of $112,849 for the first three months of the year. Mark Bronzo, a portfolio manager who helps oversee $125 billion for Guggenheim Investments in Irvington, New York, commented on the changing culture. "The dynamic for the trading companies has changed -- I just don’t think they’re going to be able to make the kind of money they used to make." If you're CEO, you might. For further details, go to [Bloomberg, 4/17/12].