Goldman Sachs faces backlash over $12.6bn staff pay pot Analysts expect Goldman to pay out an average of $385,000 in salary, bonuses and stock options to its more than 30,000 staff for their work last year, down from $431,000 in 2010. The total payout this year is $2.7bn less than the $15.3bn awarded for their efforts the previous year. In contrast to rivals such as Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase that have retail operations, Goldman is particularly vulnerable to swings in trading revenues. Revenues at its fixed income, currencies and commodities division are forecast to have dropped 25pc in the final three months of last year compared with the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Credit Suisse. Goldman is axing 1,000 jobs and cutting $1.2bn in costs by the middle of the year in an attempt to shield profits, which are expected to have bounced back to just under $850m in the final quarter of 2011 from the $428m loss the bank recorded in the preceding three months. However, the result would still be down from the $2.39bn of profits Goldman made in the final three months of 2010. One bright spot for Goldman in the quarter, according to Credit Suisse, will be an increase in fees from debt and equity underwriting for clients. And despite a tough year, Goldman topped the mergers and acquisitions league table in the UK, advising on deals worth $117.6bn . The results will surely lead to Lloyd Blankfein, the bank's chief executive, being pressed to offer his thoughts on how Goldman will be affected by the new "Volcker Rule." Scheduled to come into force in July, the rule bans banks from gambling with their own money and limits the amount of capital they can invest in hedge funds and private equity investments. "I think a firm like Goldman has real problems," said William Cohan, a former banker and author of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World. Some of the lines they've been traditionally strong in are being regulated out of existence. Goldman declined to comment.