January 9, 2015, New York (HedgeCo.Net) According to the 2015 Hedge Fund Compensation report from Benchmark Compensation, hedge fund employees fared much better than the actual performance of their funds.

Between the base salary increases and an increase in bonuses, average cash compensation increased 12% over last year’s report. The fact that compensation rose 12% while the average return was 2% (according to Bloomberg), shows a disconnect between compensation and performance.

In the report, the eighth annual report from Benchmark, respondents reported significantly lower performance numbers.

Results showed 79% of surveys showed gains for 2014 which is down from 90% reporting gains in 2013.  The report also showed that only 3% of funds reported gains greater than 25% and that is down from 18% in 2013.

One really interesting result from the survey was how 18% of respondents expected their compensation to decrease in the coming year. Last year’s survey showed only 10% expecting a decrease.