An 80-hour workweek means working from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., six days a week — which is not the norm for most Americans, who work an average 34 hours per week.
But for some young Wall Street bankers, a maximum 80-hour workweek will likely be a relief.
JPMorgan Chase is now limiting work hours after latest investigations showed that young investment bankers spend greater than 100 hours a week working.
Bank of America is also attempting to implement an 80-hour workweek limit with a latest time reporting tool, The Wall Street Journal reports on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources. The tool is set to be rolled out next week and will ask junior bankers to log their hours per day slightly than per week. It also asks for more detailed information about what bankers are working on and which senior staffers are managing them on each task.
Changes come after death 35-year-old junior banker at Bank of America Leo Lukenas III earlier this yr. Lukenas joined Bank of America in 2023 as an associate and died in May 2024 of a blood clot in his heart. Although the coroner’s report didn’t link the death to overwork, Lukenas reportedly worked 110 hours a week to take over the bank’s $2 billion business and indicated before his death that he wanted to go away as a consequence of long working hours.
AND WSJ investigation In August, it was reported that Bank of America executives repeatedly pressured junior bankers to lie about the number of hours they worked, bypassing a policy introduced a decade ago following the death of an investment banking intern at Bank of America’s London branch.
21-year-old intern Moritz Erhardt suffered from epilepsy and died of an epileptic seizureHe worked until 6 a.m. for three days in a row. Bank of America then the junior bankers asked to take at least 4 days off on weekends monthly and to make use of annual leave during the yr.
After conducting an investigation, Bank of America turned to junior bankers for help go to higher spheres or human resources if managers have overtaxed them. The latest time-reporting tool is also intended to make it harder for junior bankers to downplay the number of hours they spend in the office and to carry managers more accountable to the bank’s limits.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley still have no limits on how many hours analysts and associates can work, but Goldman has “protected saturday“the rule that Friday from 9 p.m. to Sunday until 9 a.m. is free time.