Gender pay gap (Consulting - Big 4)

[PayGap]

Hello lovely people. For a long time I have been wondering about the gender pay gap in the big 4 organizations, i.e., I know it exists but how big is the gap? It is quite frustrating to realize that you are being paid significantly less for the same amount of work/effort.

I believe organizations should be more transparent about salary bands but sadly they are not. So far, I have n't been able to find helpful information that can help me compare, hence thought of starting this thread. There are quite useful discussions on Reddit but mainly they are for US and not for UK organizations.

Hopefully this will help all of us assess where we are on the pay spectrum and use this information to negotiate and bridge the gap (wishful thinking?).

I will go first with my details, let's follow the following format to share so that we can compare. Feel free to also share (if comfortable), salaries of people you know who work in Big 4/Consulting. This is specifically for Big 4 Consulting, but please share for others if you find that helpful. PS. I have name changed for the thread.

Big 4 - Deloitte - Consulting
Gender: Female
Years of relevant experience - 8 years
Grade: Senior Consultant
Base pay: £50K
Benefits: £5K
Ethnic minority: Yes
Location: London

Who's next?

[PayGap]

@JustWonderingIfYou

The seemingly best paid for the little they did and (worst to work with) were the male senior managers who jumped companies a lot.

No idea how to use any systems or even basic general procedures of their job role and could hide it until jumping again 2years later.

yes, I have seen some of these “senior managers” - ready to jump ship in two years, or sometimes even 1!!

[NiceGerbil]

Pay gap data UK govt you can search companies (if they have more than 250 employees which I assume these do)

gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/

[NiceGerbil]

Deloitte LLP

gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Employer/MdQZ7VL9/2020

[NiceGerbil]

The numbers in your OP feel very low to me for that role.

Is there a massive bonus involved?

[QuentinBunbury]

Thanks for the pay gap link - v. Interesting

[Sexnotgender]

I work for a consultancy, not big 4. The big 4 do not interest me whatsoever!
It’s so male dominated. I imagine that skews the data.

[PayGap]

@NiceGerbil

The numbers in your OP feel very low to me for that role.

Is there a massive bonus involved?

yes I feel the same way. No, bonus is peanuts. I believe as one of the pp suggested, need to raise this with the “boss”.

[PayGap]

[quote NiceGerbil]Deloitte LLP

gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Employer/MdQZ7VL9/2020[/quote]
Thanks for sharing

[NiceGerbil]

This is London I assume?

That is shit money for a high profile company that is known to work you hard, and with that amount of experience.

Both you and the bloke money you mentioned.

[NiceGerbil]

I'm genuinely taken aback.

Get a different job.

Also that's when you get the pay hikes (if you channel man style pay negotiation techniques NAMALT obv)

[PayGap]

This is just making me sadder - validation of my belief. That’s the thing, there is no information available that can help me understand what’s a ball park salary for this role, which is fairly standard. While joining I enquired about the pay band but no helpful information.

I think keeping salaries hidden works only in the best interest of the employer and not the worker.

Changing jobs is a scary territory for me, and can’t quit without another one in hand. Also, my job gives me 0 time to prepare for a new job.

What’s a good salary for this role? I am shocked at one of the pp s comment of warning 70k, 14 years ago. I really doubt if they are paying this much at the M band even now. But I may be wrong.

[NiceGerbil]

Many companies have stopped publishing pay bands.

Two jobs I've had I've found out I was on 30% less than the men on the same job. I always got excellent performance reviews etc.

I am paid properly now but it was through a good agency (I am shit at negotiating) and I took a line that he was erm are you sure. But I said yep and it worked.

[NiceGerbil]

What sort of his hours are you doing?

Nearly a decade experience so know what you're doing and have plenty of responsibility I imagine.

London yes?

I think they are banking on their brand attracting people because. not my sector ID have assumed maybe 80+ and decent bonus.

[PayGap]

@NiceGerbil

What sort of his hours are you doing?

Nearly a decade experience so know what you're doing and have plenty of responsibility I imagine.

London yes?

I think they are banking on their brand attracting people because. not my sector ID have assumed maybe 80+ and decent bonus.

Yes London based.

Hours are dependent on project but never less than 8 and can creep up to 12 per day or more and sometimes weekends.

Yes, I have lots of responsibility and know what I am doing.

I am also shit at negotiating, and also feel that I don’t want to go to them and say pay me 80k, what if that’s quite high for this grade, also embarrassed to ask, what will the boss think about me etc etc

I kno this s stupid of me, and my performance reviews have been great as well. :(

[QuentinBunbury]

I think you should move company and negotiate hard for next grade up

[pitterpatterrain]

To be honest for 8 years senior consultant in London I would also assume more like £70-80k

Is that your MBA entry role level?

Look around - you don’t owe anything to your company especially if they are underpaying you

We are recruiting (specific type of consulting but we do have people occasionally join from D) and seems that others are too

Go by responsibilities not title / salary and you may be surprised the kind of jump you can get

[pitterpatterrain]

It’s not stupid of you - it’s silly of them

They should want to keep talent, their loss

[Sexnotgender]

Yes, I have lots of responsibility and know what I am doing.

Then your pay is shit.

I’m a consultant, and on the same as you. I work very much 9-5.

[NiceGerbil]

You need to prioritise getting another job.

Getting a large pay rise within the same company is incredibly difficult.

With them on your cv I imagine that will make you much more interesting to other companies.

Changing jobs can be scary but it's the only way.

You are not being paid at all fairly.
You will not get a rise let alone a substantial one there.
Bite the bullet, get your CV up to date. Only use specialised agencies for your sector.
Has anyone approached you in the past? Do you have contacts who value your skills. Use your network.

Sorry OP but they are not treating you at all well.

[PayGap]

Thank you so much everyone for sharing insights and for your words of encouragement.

[NiceGerbil]

Even if you don't feel ready to move

No harm in getting your CV up to date
Putting out some feelers if that's a thing you do
Looking at the ads and maybe asking around about sgency recs (not with your colleagues obv!)

[ZenNudist]

8 years and not yet manager? That's a problem. You are not rated. Need to leave.

I'm regional so can't help you. Plus I'm not big 4 and not consulting!!. I hung around too long at pwc in advisory and should have left. I changed specialism after 5 years and then felt I needed to build my experience back up but it took 7 years to get to manager overall with the specialism change. It felt like a real kick in the teeth when I'd asked about this before changing and they just lie to you. I was on your salary in 2012 as a manager with 12 years experience including 7 years in my specialism.

I should have bit the bullet and moved after 5 years or 7 years but I was comfortable, liked my shitty awful team, and stayed. They took the piss with salary, overworked me and never promoted me when they said they would, eventually I had dc1 and funnily enough found myself made redundant.

Payed off for me as I moved to a great firm who really value me.

My advice to you is to start speaking to recruiters. You should be able to get to manager level plus get a pay bump. Ask advice from recruiters on salary. Do not stay. Do not be a mug. Deloitte don't value you.

[Shelddd]

@ZenNudist

8 years and not yet manager? That's a problem. You are not rated. Need to leave.

I'm regional so can't help you. Plus I'm not big 4 and not consulting!!. I hung around too long at pwc in advisory and should have left. I changed specialism after 5 years and then felt I needed to build my experience back up but it took 7 years to get to manager overall with the specialism change. It felt like a real kick in the teeth when I'd asked about this before changing and they just lie to you. I was on your salary in 2012 as a manager with 12 years experience including 7 years in my specialism.

I should have bit the bullet and moved after 5 years or 7 years but I was comfortable, liked my shitty awful team, and stayed. They took the piss with salary, overworked me and never promoted me when they said they would, eventually I had dc1 and funnily enough found myself made redundant.

Payed off for me as I moved to a great firm who really value me.

My advice to you is to start speaking to recruiters. You should be able to get to manager level plus get a pay bump. Ask advice from recruiters on salary. Do not stay. Do not be a mug. Deloitte don't value you.

I don't think OP meant 8 years in consulting at big 4. Probably had most of that experience in industry job in same area they're consulting in (says relevant experience)... Even with lots of industry experience, advanced degrees, etc.. you still would have a hard time getting hired as a manager in a consulting firm. They like to bring people in at consultant or senior consultant (if they're not coming from competing consultancies) regardless of years of experience.

[SourAppleChew]

I think you are possibly being too conscientious. Who was it that said "if you get offered a job you're not sure you can do....accept it and then learn how to do it."

Obv doesn't always work like that, but one of my best mates is a bloke and has increased his pay from £45k to slightly over £100k as an IT/digital forensics consultant by basically hopping around the last few years. He's got a really good recruiter who seems much better at selling him than he is himself. My mate is no idiot but really not exceptional.

[timeisnotaline]

They won’t pay you 80k. That is more like the starting senior manager level. When you say your performance reviews have been great, do you mean you’ve been getting either a 1 or a 2 each year and not being promoted? If so, that’s unacceptable and you need to say what is needed for a promotion as I’m going to start looking elsewhere. If you mean 2s and 3s and lots of nice words, that more means you’re doing ok at your grade. Straight 2s is hard to tell which way it falls without knowing you. This is out of 4, adjust it if out of 5, I’m assuming there is a roughly similar perf score.
Also your people manager should be both your champion and able to tell you what else you need to do. You can ask to switch.
When you say you have a lot of responsibility, I hmm a bit. All senior consultants have a lot of responsibility, but very few have manager level responsibility etc. again would have to know you- if you are performing a manger role you should be promoted. If you just think you’re doing a lot without having the perspective of what the manager /senior manager role is carrying then that’s different.