The "$267,000 year-one" figure candidates trade is usually a ceiling story, not a paycheck. Someone stacked a posted base, a median signing bonus from an MBA employment report, a strong performance-bonus assumption, and sometimes a retirement match — then labeled the sum "what consultants make." That arithmetic is legal. Calling the sum recurring salary is not.
The thesis is simple: consulting pay is a stack of unlike components, and the skill that matters is unstacking them before you compare firms. After this page you should be able to read an offer letter and a school employment table the same way — line by line — and know which lines survive into year two.
Firm-by-firm ladders live elsewhere: McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, EY, and the filtered 2026 salary report. This piece is the method.
The five lines on a consulting offer
Every serious US consulting letter has the same anatomy. Write them down before you open a spreadsheet.
| Line | What it is | Recurs in year 2? | Where primary data lives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base salary | Guaranteed annual cash for the role and level | Yes | Firm job posting or offer letter |
| Signing / start bonus | One-time cash for joining (often with a clawback) | No | Offer letter; school reports show industry medians |
| Performance / variable bonus | Discretionary or target bonus tied to ratings and firm year | Partly — amount moves | Offer letter language; school "variable" / "bonus" columns are industry aggregates |
| Retirement / profit-share | Match, contribution, or profit-sharing into a plan | Yes, rules change with tenure | Benefits summary; rarely a single public schedule |
| Relocation / housing / tuition | One-time or cohort-specific extras | Usually no | Offer letter |
Base is the only line most firms will put on a public US job posting under pay-transparency rules. Signing and performance are almost always discretionary or cohort-set. Retirement and relocation are easy to inflate into a "total" that never appears on anyone's W-2 the way the meme implies.
When I sit on the other side of an offer conversation, the candidates who sound adult separate those five lines in the first sixty seconds. The ones who sound like a forum thread open with a single all-in number and then get surprised when the recruiter will not "confirm" it.
The year-one total trap (worked example)
Reproduce this with your own letter. Invented firm names; the method is the point.
You hold two US MBA offers dated September 2026.
Offer A — "Northbridge" (strategy firm, campus Associate/Consultant seat)
| Component | Conservative | Strong year |
|---|---|---|
| Base | $190,000 | $190,000 |
| Signing (one-time) | $25,000 | $30,000 |
| Performance bonus | $20,000 | $40,000 |
| Retirement contribution (employer) | $6,000 | $8,000 |
| Stacked "year-1 total" | $241,000 | $268,000 |
| Recurring cash if bonus repeats (no signing) | $216,000 | $238,000 |
Offer B — "Harbor Advisory" (large professional-services consulting track)
| Component | Conservative | Strong year |
|---|---|---|
| Base | $145,000 | $145,000 |
| Signing | $10,000 | $15,000 |
| Performance bonus | $10,000 | $18,000 |
| Retirement | $4,000 | $5,000 |
| Stacked year-1 | $169,000 | $183,000 |
| Recurring (no signing) | $159,000 | $168,000 |
Three observations most prep-site tables bury:
- The gap between Offers A and B shrinks when you drop signing. Year-one folklore is designed to maximize the gap.
- Performance bonus is not base. A "strong year" assumption is a scenario, not a contract. School medians are useful as a planning midpoint across employers; they are not your firm's guarantee.
- Retirement match is real money and terrible at comparing firms unless you know vesting and the contribution formula. Do not paste a 401(k) match into "cash" next to base without labeling it.
If someone quotes you a single year-1 total without those columns, ask them to unstack it. If they cannot, you do not yet have a number.
Ned's rule. Bank the posted or lettered base. Treat every year-1 total as a range you confirm with the offer contact: "What did first-years in this office actually receive last cycle for signing and performance bonus?" Model the conservative column until they answer.
How to read a school employment report
Top MBA programs publish consulting outcomes every year. They are the cleanest public calibration for industry medians — not firm-specific rate cards.
Take three Class of 2025 sources checked for this article:
| School | Consulting share / note | Consulting base (Class of 2025) | Signing / variable | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wharton | 28.2% of accepted offers | Median $190,000; 25th–75th $190,000–$192,000 | Median sign-on $30,000 among those reporting one (55.6% of consulting acceptances in the table) | Full-time industry choices |
| Kellogg | 38% of accepted offers | Median $190,000; reported range $67,113–$210,000 | Median signing bonus $30,000 | Career outcomes tables |
| Booth | ~37% into consulting industry | Median consulting base $190,000 (class overall median base $175,000; median sign-on $30,000) | Sign-on reported at class level; 65% of accepted offers received a sign-on | Booth 2025 employment story |
Harvard Business School's Class of 2025 consulting function data, as published on its recruiting employment pages, clusters the same way: median base about $190,000, median signing about $30,000 (high share receiving), median variable about $40,000. Use HBS as a third calibration when the page loads; the Wharton and Kellogg tables above are enough to run the method without it.
How to use these tables without fooling yourself:
- Median base ≠ your firm. Consulting at Wharton includes MBB, Tier 2, Big Four strategy arms, and boutiques. The $190,000 median is a peer market, not "McKinsey's number."
- Signing % matters. A median signing bonus of $30,000 among recipients is not the same as "everyone gets $30,000." Wharton's consulting table shows just over half of consulting acceptances with a reported sign-on in that column.
- Variable / performance is aspirational until paid. Schools that report a median variable bonus are summarizing self-reported expectations or outcomes across employers. Your first bonus arrives after a ratings cycle.
- Wide ranges are the story. Kellogg's consulting base range from about $67,000 to $210,000 is what "consulting" means when the category is broad. Do not paste the median onto a regional Big Four offer and call it underpayment.
For the occupation outside campus recruiting, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the May 2025 median wage for management analysts at $101,860. That is the broad labor market. Elite campus consulting offers sit well above it; that gap is why candidates obsess over these letters.
How to read a posted pay band
US pay-transparency rules pushed many consulting employers to print a base range (or a single first-year base) on the job listing. Read the disclaimer the way the firm wrote it.
Typical language, paraphrased from current McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, and Kearney US postings:
- The figure is base (or a "reasonable wage estimate"), not total compensation.
- Actual pay may vary with experience, office, start date, and business need.
- Bonus eligibility is often called discretionary.
- It is not typical to hire at the top of a wide range (common on Big Four and Tier 2 listings).
Title vocabulary breaks comparisons. McKinsey's undergraduate seat is Business Analyst; BCG's is Associate; Bain's is Associate Consultant. McKinsey's post-MBA seat is Associate; BCG and Bain call that seat Consultant. If your spreadsheet compares "Associate" across firms without mapping titles, the sheet is wrong before the first formula.
Link out for firm-specific posted bases rather than repeating them here: McKinsey salary, BCG salary, Bain salary, Kearney, Oliver Wyman, L.E.K., Roland Berger, Accenture, Deloitte, EY, PwC.
Entry-level ranges by tier (as of Class of 2025 / 2026 postings)
Ranges only. These are planning bands triangulated from firm US postings and school industry medians, not invented point figures and not a promise for your office.
| Tier | Typical US entry seats | Undergrad / pre-MBA base range | MBA / advanced-degree base range | Year & source basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBB | McKinsey BA / Associate; BCG Associate / Consultant; Bain AC / Consultant | About $110,000–$125,000 | About $190,000–$200,000 | 2026 US firm postings summarized on CoachNed firm guides; MBA industry medians $190,000 at Wharton, Kellogg, Booth Class of 2025 |
| Tier 2 / large strategy firms | Kearney, Oliver Wyman, L.E.K., Roland Berger, Strategy&, EY-Parthenon, Accenture Strategy | Roughly $95,000–$120,000 | Roughly $175,000–$200,000 | School consulting ranges (Kellogg consulting bases span far wider) plus firm posting bands on the linked firm guides; verify practice track |
| Big Four generalist consulting | Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG management consulting (not always the strategy arm) | Roughly $80,000–$110,000 | Roughly $130,000–$175,000 depending on practice | Deloitte US and peer posting estimates; school medians are pulled up by MBB/strategy seats — do not use $190,000 as a Big Four floor |
| Broader occupation | "Management analyst" across employers | BLS median ~$102,000 (all experience levels) | Same occupation series | BLS OOH, May 2025 median $101,860 |
Signing and first-year variable for MBA consulting at top schools often cluster near $25,000–$40,000 medians when reported — again, industry aggregates, not your letter. Undergrad signing at MBB is typically a much smaller one-time line than MBA signing; confirm on the letter.
Geography: many MBB US campus bases are national for the cohort. Purchasing power is not. For office-level cost of living, use the consulting salary by city guide. UK and other markets quote local currency; converting with yesterday's FX rate and calling it "MBB US equivalent" is how bad comparisons start.
What you can negotiate, and what you cannot
Campus cohort bases at MBB are usually fixed for the class. Asking for "match my other MBB base" rarely moves the number; the firm already knows the peer band. What sometimes moves — when you have a competing written offer — is start date, office preference, relocation support, and occasionally signing. Experienced-hire and specialist tracks have more room inside a posted range; Big Four and Tier 2 postings often say the top of the band is uncommon.
Negotiation without a competing letter is mostly clarifying questions: clawback on signing, when the first performance bonus pays, how last year's first-year bonuses landed in that office, and whether the seat is a strategy arm or a generalist consulting track. Those answers change cash timing even when base does not.
The tier gap is decided in the case, not in the salary call. If you want the higher stack, practice until the interview sheet says so — then unstack the letter you earn.
Run the comparison yourself today
Open a blank sheet. Four columns: base, signing, expected bonus (low / mid / high), recurring year-2 cash. Fill them from your offer letter or from a live posting plus a school median as a labeled estimate. Then run one timed case so the offer process is not theoretical: start a five-minute first rep (three typed turns, instant scores, no account) or the ~18-minute voice case with Ned. Everything on CoachNed is open for seven days with no card; then $120 for a recruiting season or $49 a month.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal MBA consulting base salary in 2025–2026?
At top US MBA programs, Class of 2025 consulting median bases sit at about $190,000, with a narrow middle 50% near $190,000–$192,000 at Wharton. Individual firm postings for MBB MBA seats in 2026 still cluster around the high-$100,000s to low-$200,000s of base. Treat $190,000 as an industry median, not every firm's offer.
Does the year-one total include signing bonus?
Often the internet number does; your recurring paycheck does not. Signing is usually one-time and may claw back if you leave early. Always ask for year-1 cash with and without signing before you compare offers.
Are consulting salaries the same in every US city?
For many MBB campus cohorts, the posted base is national. Rent is not. Tier 2 and Big Four practices show more local variation. Compare net purchasing power separately from the lettered base; see consulting salary by city.
How much do Big Four consultants make versus MBB?
MBB campus bases sit higher, and school consulting medians are pulled toward strategy seats. Big Four generalist consulting bases are often lower and practice-dependent; strategy arms (Strategy&, EY-Parthenon, Deloitte strategy tracks) can close part of the gap. Read the practice name on the letter. Firm guides: Deloitte, EY, and Big 4 vs MBB.
Where do the "$267K" and "$285K" year-1 figures come from?
They are stacked ceilings: base plus signing plus an optimistic bonus (and sometimes benefits). Firms do not generally publish a single US year-1 total for campus hires. Rebuild the stack from the letter and label assumptions. CoachNed is not affiliated with McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG, or any other firm named here.
Sources
- Wharton Full-Time Industry Choices — Class of 2025 consulting base percentiles and sign-on median. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Wharton 2025 Career Report (PDF) — consulting placement share and base methodology (base only; discretionary bonuses excluded from salary columns). Checked 2026-09-24.
- Kellogg Full-Time MBA Career Outcomes — Class of 2025 consulting median base, range, and median signing bonus. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Chicago Booth MBA Employment Report 2025 story — consulting share, class median base and sign-on, top employers. Checked 2026-09-24.
- U.S. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Management Analysts — May 2025 median wage $101,860 for the occupation. Checked 2026-09-24.
- BCG Careers FAQs — firm statement that compensation varies by role, experience, and location; recruiter as source of current detail. Checked 2026-09-24.