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An 80-hour workweek means working six days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. – not the norm for most Americans, who work an average of 34 hours a week.
But for some junior bankers on Wall Street, a maximum 80-hour week may be a relief.
JPMorgan Chase is now introducing a work hour limit after new research showed that junior investment bankers are working more than 100 hours a week.
Bank of America is also trying to enforce an 80-hour-per-week cap with a new time-tracking tool, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources. The tool will reportedly roll out next week and will require junior bankers to log their hours daily rather than weekly, and will require more detailed information about what bankers are working on and which senior staff members they supervise on each assignment.
The changes come after the death of 35-year-old Bank of America junior banker Leo Lukenas III earlier this year. Lukenas joined Bank of America as an associate in 2023 and died in May 2024 of a blood clot in his heart. Although the coroner's report did not link the death to overwork, Lukenas had reportedly worked 110-hour weeks on a $2 billion acquisition for the bank and indicated before his death that he wanted to leave because of the long hours.
Related: JPMorgan says its AI cash flow software reduces human labor by nearly 90%
A Wall Street Journal investigation in August found that Bank of America bosses regularly pressured junior bankers to lie about the number of hours they worked, evading policies put in place a decade ago after the death of an investment banking intern at Bank of America's London office.
The 21-year-old intern Moritz Erhardt suffered from epilepsy and died of an epileptic seizure. He had worked until 6 a.m. for three days in a row. The Bank of America then asked the young bank employees to take at least four weekends off a month and to take their annual vacation.
Following the investigation, Bank of America told junior bankers to go to higher-ups or human resources if they felt overworked by managers. The new time-tracking tool is also designed to make it harder for junior bankers to downplay the number of hours they spend in the office and to hold managers more accountable to the bank's guidelines.
Related: Bank of America threatens 'disciplinary action' to employees who don't return to the office – Read what the letters said
At Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, there are still no restrictions on the number of hours analysts and employees can work, but Goldman has a “protected Saturday policy” that blocks Friday from 9 p.m. to Sunday 9 a.m. as free time.
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