July 9, 2025

Did you know that women earn on average 20% less than men?

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The pay gap is everywhere, and it’s high.

It’s a commonly held belief that the national gender pay gap is largely driven by gender-based variation in career choices, and that more high profile discrepancies in the world of media and sport are due to institutionally entrenched biases that are soon to be left behind us. However, based on 20,000+ data points from ex-consultants and those in similar professions, the gender pay gap pervades even professional service industries.

What is particularly galling is that the differences are stark even at the most junior levels – this is not a legacy issue reflected by fewer women higher up in organisations, but instead suggests that a deeper unconscious bias is affecting pay decisions across the board.

  • The difference is marked for bonus percentages, pay raises and total compensation packages, and is present in varying degrees across all seniorities, from those in the first few years of their career through to those at Director level.
  • At the extreme, men at associate level (approx 4 years into their career) receive bonuses nearly 2.5 times the size of those received by women at the same level and have total compensation packages around a third higher than their female counterparts.
  • Male analysts receive pay raises that are 19% higher than female analysts.
  • Across all seniorities (from Analyst to Director/VP), men earn on average 20% more than women

In fact, at senior levels, since 2018 the gap appears to have widened. Women are paid between 12-20% less. Their pay rises are also smaller.

Download our full 2021 salary report here.

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