Goldman Sachs said it paid out $15.38 billion in compensation and benefits to its employees for 2010. That's an eye-popping number, of course, for the feverishly watched compensation at old Goldie.

But $15.38 billion is actually a 5% decline compared to the compensation from a year ago. As a percentage of Goldman's revenue, the compensation level was 39.3% (excluding a U.K. bank payroll tax). That is among the lowest compensation ratios in Goldman's history. The low water mark was 35.8% in 2009.

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