Maybe it's been a tough year, but there are signs Wall Street might soon get back to its old pay practices. At least the New York Times thinks so.

Sunday's paper says six big banks set aside $36 billion in the first quarter for employee compensation. "If that pace continues all year, the money set aside for compensation suggests that workers at many banks will see their pay - much of it in bonuses - recover from the lows of last year," the Times says.

Several banks told the Times compensation budgets, as published in their financial statements, cover salaries, health care, pension plans and severance payments in addition to the bonuses that earned Wall Street boatloads of negative media coverage in recent months.

So while the firms aren't necessarily spending more on compensation (their headcounts have been cut back sharply), average pay for rank-and-file workers - whose pay isn't impacted by government mandates - may be coming back to pre-recession levels.

Recruiters say banks are making offers to recruits at levels much like those made in a few years ago, or offering guarantees to remove some of the uncertainty a prospective hire may be worrying about.

What's this mean for 2009 compensation? Who knows. To be sure, more people have been speculating about the bottom lately, but it's still a bit early to say as the first quarter goes, so goes the year.