Basic salary progression
by company type

Basic salaries vary by company type

Startups (-22%) pay below average and investing (+11%) is consistently above average.

Basic pay in Tech, traditional industries and consulting is very similar, particularly at more senior levels.

€k  Average salary by industry and seniority

Average salary per seniority

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.

Years of experience

Basic salaries climb steadily in line with the number of years of experience.

Consultants with McKinsey, Bain or BCG experience command, on average, an 17% basic salary premium.

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 12%.

Pay rises across consulting, investing, startups and tech have been extremely similar and outpacing both traditional industries and the 3rd sector.

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

10% higher in consulting & investing vs other organisations.

Satisfaction with working hours

 Satisfaction remains lowest in consulting being 14% below average.

Overall satisfaction

Job satisfaction overall is broadly flat vs 2020

Job satisfaction overall ranges from 6% above average (Tech) to 6% below average (Consulting)

Overall job satisfaction by seniority – out of 10

New job search

People working in consulting are the most active job seekers. 

Job seeking is most active among people working in consulting with 53% of respondents either very (i.e, weekly) or somewhat (i.e, monthly) actively looking to leave their job and only 7% not looking at all.

Breakdown of candidate job search activity

Job satisfaction
freelance V consulting

Freelancers are happiest overall, with their working hours and with their compensation.

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.