MBB salary progression

Question

Hi everyone,

I have accepted an MBB offer a few months ago, thanks to this wonderful community and platform. I would like to ask a question regarding the progression of the MBB salary.

Since I'll be starting my role in an SEA office (not SG) which was paid lower than the counterparts in the other offices in developed countries, I would like to know at what point in the ladder do someone gets paid at a global rate? I think I have heard a fact that Bain pays the same base comp to all their manager regardless of their office, while the other MB does this at a much later stage.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hi there,

Global compensation for McKinsey at least reaches the same levels at Senior Partner level. I wouldn't worry that much about it now. What I'd rather check if whether you're working in the country where you'd like to be long term and how does the pay compare to the cost of living vs other offices. Of course, you can also consider later moves across firms but within MBB the differences in pay are usually <10% for similar roles.

Answer 2

Hi there,

This will generally take a while. At McKinsey, you'll basically have to wait until you're Partner when the global profit sharing for remuneration kicks in.

Bottom line, this is nothing you should be concerned about now because it's a very long-term issue that you have no control over. In consulting, you should generally focus more on the short-term because otherwise, there will be no long-term…

If remuneration is an issue for you now, however, you should consider changing offices to a higher paying location. This is generally possible but not before you've done a good stint at your home office for around ~2 years.

Hope this helps a bit to put things in perspective. Best of luck!

Answer 3

Hi there and congrats on your offer!

I agree with Moritz and Ian there and just want to add (in case you will be considering swathing offices, as Moritz suggested): just because a country is more developed, it does not mean the compensation there is higher. From my experience, MBB compensation is dependant more on supply of well-qualified talent: for instance, gross entry-level salaries in the Moscow office (prior to Feb 2022, naturally) were 50% higher than those in the Milan office, just because in Moscow it was companies that were competing for top talent, and in Milan - it was candidates competing for top positions.

So I wouldn't be surprised to learn that actually some of the SEA offices are better off than some of the European ones.

Good luck anyway!

Answer 4

Hi there,

Congrats on the offer!

How about once you join, you just directly look at the materials the company has :)

This way there won't be any inaccuracies! This is going to depend on exact company + office.

Answer 5

The short answer to this question for McKinsey is - Senior Partner. All Senior Partners make the same globally regardless of country, but to get there is a 10-12 year journey.