ANALYSIS - The disappearing Wall St "bonus," but in name only

By Karey Wutkowski and Steve Eder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Bonus" has become a dirty word on Wall Street, prompting image consultants to advise the biggest financial firms to use euphemisms that carry less stigma as the season of lavish payouts approaches.

A look at Goldman Sachs' quarterly filings with regulators reveals that the term "discretionary bonuses" has been replaced with "discretionary compensation" in the past nine months.

In fact, the most recent quarterly filing had no references to "bonus" at all, despite the fact that the Wall Street giant is on pace to pay out more than $20 billion in year-end bonuses and other compensation, a record level.

Alan Johnson, a compensation consultant with his own New York-based firm, said the change in language is no coincidence. He has been advising his clients, which include the largest investment and commercial banks, to banish the word "bonus" and use "incentives" instead.

"We try to avoid the term wherever we can because it is a flash point," Johnson said. "We're going back to using what it really is, it's an incentive."

Johnson said for the top earners on Wall Street, their bonuses can be anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of their annual compensation, and is a built-in part of compensation, not an extra.

He said that can be hard for the general public to understand or relate to.

The financial crisis has been littered with flare-ups over bonuses, perhaps most notably in March, when lawmakers balked at $165 million in bonuses being paid to employees at the AIG unit largely responsible for the firm getting just over $180 billion in government pledges of assistance.