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UK insights 2022
Basic salary progression
by company type
Basic salaries vary by company type
Tech (+6%) and Investing (+14%) consistently pay above the average. While Start-ups (-17%), and the 3rd sector (-27%) pay consistently below.
Traditional industries (-6%) pay lower salaries than Tech firms (+6%), although this difference narrows at Director level.
£k Average salary by industry and seniority
Average salary per seniority
Associate
Manager
Director
Associate level pay rises
The war for talent is most evident at Associate level
Associate level basic salaries have increased 36% in 3 years, however, basic salaries at senior levels have stayed more consistent.
36%
Increase in associate level base salaries
Years of experience
Basic salaries climb steadily in line with the number of years of experience.
2-5 Years
6-10 Years
11-15 Years
16-20 Years
21+ Years
Consultants with McKinsey, Bain or BCG experience command, on average, an 18% basic salary premium.
18%
Salary premium:
McKinsey, Bain, BCG Consultants
Industry deep dive Index
Functional basic salary variance compared to the overall average
Functional salary increase
As seniority progresses, the variance between basic salaries in different functions increases from ~12% at Associate level to ~30% at Director.
Functional pay index
Total compensation breakdown
Across all company types, non-cash compensation (bonus & equity) becomes more important as seniority increases.
Start-ups offer the highest level of equity at most seniority levels, while the high bonuses provided by Private Equity mean that the share of base salaries as a percentage of total compensation is lowest in these companies.
% Breakdown of total compensation by company type
Pay rises and satisfaction
breakdown
The average basic salary increase in the last 12 months was 10%.
Pay rises across consulting, investing, startups and tech have been extremely similar and outpacing both traditional industries and the 3rd sector.
%
Tech
%
Start-up
%
Investing
%
Consulting
%
Traditional Industry
%
Government, Charity, Social
10%
Average salary increase (last 12 months)
Satisfaction with compensation
Consulting firms remain the lowest in satisfaction scores and have fallen 4% in the last 2 years.
Manager level satisfaction with compensation dips strongly (vs other levels) in Consulting and Corporates whereas in Startups and Private Equity it climbs with seniority.
Work-life balance
Working hours
While staying largely flat in startups (+1%) and corporates (-2%), working hours have improved in consulting (-7%) & investing (-12%) within the last 2 years.
This improvement was most notable at the Associate level in consulting (-10%).
Satisfaction with working hours
Consulting firms remain the lowest, however, satisfaction has improved 14% in the last 2 years.
Manager level satisfaction with compensation dips strongly (vs other levels) in Consulting and Corporates whereas in Startups & Private Equity it climbs with seniority.
Overall satisfaction
Job satisfaction overall is broadly flat vs 2020
Consulting firms notably below average (-7%) and startups (+9%) & 3rd sector organisations (+8%) notably above.
Overall job satisfaction by seniority – out of 10
Associate
Manager
Director
Overall total
New job search
People working in consulting and the 3rd sector are the most active job seekers.
50% of respondents were looking at new opportunities on a weekly or monthly basis.
Breakdown of candidate job search activity
%
Not Looking
%
Passively Looking
%
Looking
%
Actively Applying
Job satisfaction
freelance V consulting
People working in consulting are less satisfied than freelancers overall by 14%.
%
Less satisfied working In consulting overall
%
Less satisfied with compensation
%
Less satisfied with working hours
Freelancers are happiest overall
Overall satisfaction for permanent employees in corporates (including satisfaction with hours) is broadly similar to freelancers, however, satisfaction with compensation is ~10% lower.
Freelance day rates
The average freelance day rate is approximately equal to dividing the average permanent basic salary by 110.
Freelance day rates are dictated by a range of factors: project length, working hours per day required, client type, client budget and rarity of expertise being offered.
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