According to Martin, some of New York City's Upper East Side moms, or what she refers to as "Glam SAHMs" ("glamorous stay-at-home-moms"), get a performance-based year-end bonus that's determined by their investment banker/hedge-fund manager husbands.
We did a quick fly around the finance community for some reaction. No one is really buying it.
- "Nothing says 'I love you' like a mom bonus... Typically an employer offers a bonus to incentive their employees. I guess to some marriage is no different. But honestly when I first read the article I had to double check to make sure it wasn't published by the Onion," a former hedge fund portfolio manager said.
- "If capitalism is a crime I'm guilty!" one trader told us. "However, even though money is a motivator I am surprised these guys have to [incentivize] their wives to do this. I would hazard a guess that anyone paying their wife a mom bonus is also paying mom for sex as that seems a natural offshoot of this logic. "
- "I'm skeptical that they exist," one former banker said. "I worked in banking for a long time. Do bankers buy their wives stuff-and also give them money-when they get their bonuses? Absolutely. Do the girls joke about it when they're drinking wine with their friends and call it a 'wife bonus'? I'm sure they do. But is the 'wife bonus' a real tangible thing? I seriously doubt it."
- Another person from the buy side didn't think the story was really a trend. "...maybe a handful, but not widespread," he said.
- The article was the perfect material for some jokes, too. "There is no such thing as a fixed-price contract," one hedge funder said.
- "Are wife bonuses subject to clawback provisions? cc: @SenWarren," anonymous Twitter trader @IvanTheK Tweeted. "Are wife bonuses taxed at capital gains rates?"
- "If ever a day goes by where I regret moving my family out of the Upper East Side seven years ago, I'll just return to this article and remember what kind of rat race I could be suffering through just to keep up with people I don't even like," one Wall Street exec said.
It's a world most of us will never know or understand.