Image Associated Press
On Thursday night, The New York Times reported that JPMorgan's board decided to give its embattled CEO a raise. Now, we know exactly how much Jamie Dimon will take home for his hard work in 2013 — $20 million. That's almost as much as he was making in 2011, before JPMorgan slashed his pay because of the bank's multi-billion trading error known as the "London Whale." This year, JPMorgan had just alittle trouble with the law, but evidently not enough to keep Dimon at his miserably low 2012 salary, which was $11.5 million.
The board voted this week on Dimon's raise. The Times reports,
The debate pitted a vocal minority of directors who wanted to keep his compensation largely flat, citing the approximately $20 billion in penalties JPMorgan has paid in the last year to federal authorities, against directors who argued that Dimon should be rewarded for his stewardship of the bank during such a difficult period.
Negotiations were tense: "During the meetings, some board members left the conference room to pace up and down the 50th-floor corridor." But the vocal minority lost, and Dimon really can relax now. JPMorgan settled with the Justice Department for the role it played in the 2008 financial crisis (a record $13 billion, if you'll recall). Now, analysts expect that the bank will only have to shell out another $2 billion or so over the next few years to settle outstanding lawsuits. The DOJ has moved on to investigating other banks. 
And perhaps Dimon knew his big paycheck was going to be restored — his Christmas card certainly looked happy this year.