First-year investment bankers usually bring in about $200,000, all told, and, until this year, could reasonably expect a 20 percent increase after the first year…

Younger workers are more likely to compare themselves to their peers, if only because pay hews closer to a knowable scale than it does for more senior employees, and so there’s a drawback to being the first mover.  (Plus, 23-year-olds making shit-tons of money tend to get really drunk and talk about it with each other, science tells us.)