Kearney Salary 2026: Pay by Level from Business Analyst to Partner

Kearney pays between roughly $106,000 and $1,160,000 a year in the United States depending on level, and almost all of it is cash. A business analyst joining from undergrad averages $106,000 in total compensation, about $98,300 base plus an $8,100 bonus, per Levels.fyi data checked July 31, 2026. A post-MBA associate lands somewhere between $194,000 and $267,000 depending on whether you read realised packages or signed offer letters. Managers average $278,000, principals $383,000 or more, and partners are reported between $540,000 and $1,160,000 once profit distributions are counted.

Outside the US the shape changes rather than the ladder. UK averages reported to Indeed run from about £46,400 for a business analyst to £131,000 for a manager, and DACH base salaries land near 70 to 80 percent of the US number once converted, offset by stronger statutory benefits. Every figure below carries its source and the date it was checked, and where two credible sources disagree, both are shown.

Kearney salary 2026 at a glance

The table below uses the Levels.fyi management consultant series for Kearney as the spine, because it reports realised packages from self-submitted offers on one consistent date. Where offer-tracker data disagrees, the wider band is shown beside it.

Sources: Levels.fyi Kearney management consultant (median $190,000, checked July 31, 2026), Levels.fyi Kearney business analyst (checked July 31, 2026), CaseStar Kearney associate, CaseStar Kearney manager and CaseStar Kearney partner (all June 2026, anchored to New York), StrategyCase Kearney salary (May 2026).

What Kearney pays a business analyst in 2026

The business analyst is Kearney's undergraduate entry role, and it is the level where the firm sits clearly behind MBB. Levels.fyi records a $98,300 average base and an $8,100 average bonus, for $106,000 total and no equity. That bonus is about 8 percent of base, which is the tell: at Kearney the bonus lever barely exists at entry and becomes the dominant lever later.

Offer trackers report a higher band because they capture the headline number on a signed letter rather than the package someone actually banked after a mediocre bonus year. StrategyCase puts the pre-MBA band at $110,000 to $120,000 base and $125,000 to $145,000 total as of May 2026. Both are true statements about different things. If you are deciding whether to accept, the offer letter is the number you can negotiate; if you are modelling three years of earnings, the realised figure is the honest one.

One naming trap matters here. Kearney does not use the same level vocabulary everywhere. The US undergrad hire is a business analyst; several sources call the pre-MBA level "consultant" and reserve "associate" for the post-MBA hire, which is the reverse of the McKinsey convention where associate is the MBA level and business analyst is the undergrad level. Read the title against the entry requirement, never against the word itself. The role structure by office is covered in the Kearney consulting overview.

What Kearney pays a post-MBA associate

This is the level with the widest reported spread, and the spread is the finding.

Sources: Levels.fyi Kearney and Levels.fyi Kearney business analyst track, both checked July 31, 2026; CaseStar, June 2026; StrategyCase, May 2026, which reports a post-MBA median near $209,000 and a high near $288,000.

The practical read: plan on a base in the high $170Ks to high $180Ks, a signing bonus you should expect to be offered rather than have to ask for, and a performance bonus that is genuinely variable. A first-year associate who lands a $52,000 bonus and a $35,000 signing is at $267,000; the same associate on a soft year with the same base is closer to $210,000. That $57,000 swing is larger than the entire entry-level bonus, which is why bonus mechanics deserve their own section below.

Why the same Kearney level shows two different numbers

Two Levels.fyi pages for the same firm disagree about the same title on the same day: the management consultant series reports a $129,000 senior business analyst average, while the business analyst series reports $146,000. Neither is wrong. They slice a different population, because Kearney runs both a strategy consulting track and analytics or digital roles that carry similar titles, and the submissions land in different job families.

Three rules keep a comparison honest:

• Fix the measure before the firm. Base, total cash and total compensation answer different questions. Compare like with like or the conclusion is an artefact.
• Fix the date. Every figure in this article was pulled on the date named beside it. Consulting base salaries have been broadly flat since the 2022 freeze, but bonus pools move every year.
• Fix the geography. A New York anchored figure and a Düsseldorf figure are not the same offer in a different currency, because the benefits and tax base differ.

For the multi-firm version of this exercise, use the consulting salary guide and the consulting salary report 2026. For purchasing-power adjustment across offices, see consulting salary by city.

Kearney bonus, signing and retirement mechanics

Kearney's package is cash-heavy and back-loaded. Levels.fyi records $0 in stock for business analysts and only trivial amounts at associate and manager, so unlike a tech offer there is no vesting schedule doing quiet work in the background. What changes across the ladder is how much of the package the bonus carries:

Computed from Levels.fyi Kearney level data (checked July 31, 2026) and CaseStar's Kearney manager and partner pages (June 2026).

Signing bonuses at MBA entry are reported at $20,000 to $45,000 across sources. Retirement is the one component none of the sources checked here disclose with a figure: no fetched source states a Kearney 401(k) match rate or profit-sharing contribution percentage. Treat any number you see for it as unverified and ask the recruiter directly, in writing, before you compare a Kearney offer against a firm that publishes its contribution.

Kearney partner pay and how the profit share works

Kearney is an independent partnership. It was owned by Electronic Data Systems from 1995 to 2006, bought back by management in 2006, and rebranded from A.T. Kearney to Kearney in January 2020. It now runs offices in more than 40 countries with 5,300 or more employees and roughly $2.0 billion in 2025 revenue, and its 300 or more partners each hold an equal governance vote per Wikipedia's firm profile.

That equal-vote structure matters for pay. Partner compensation is reported at $330,000 to $540,000 base with $210,000 to $620,000 in performance and profit distributions, for $540,000 to $1,160,000 total, with a base near $410,000 typical and the spread driven by profit share (CaseStar Kearney partner, June 2026). Because distributions track firm profitability and individual contribution rather than an equity grant with a fixed schedule, a strong firm year and a soft firm year are visible in a partner's income in a way they are not in a manager's.

Kearney vs McKinsey, BCG and Bain in 2026

Every figure in this table comes from Levels.fyi on the same date, July 31, 2026, so the comparison is like for like on measure and timing. Titles are aligned by entry requirement, not by name.

Sources: Levels.fyi Kearney, Levels.fyi McKinsey, Levels.fyi BCG, Levels.fyi Bain, all checked July 31, 2026. Our level-by-level breakdowns for the three: McKinsey salary, BCG salary, Bain salary.

The pattern is consistent. Kearney trails MBB by $14,000 to $24,000 at undergrad entry and by $21,000 to $28,000 at post-MBA entry, and then the gap inverts: a Kearney manager at $278,000 sits above a Bain case team leader at $266,000 and below a BCG project leader at $307,000. If you expect to leave consulting inside three years, the MBB entry premium is the number that matters. If you expect to stay through the first management promotion, it largely washes out. That trade sits at the centre of the wider MBB versus boutique versus Tier 2 comparison.

Kearney salary outside the United States

Non-US figures come from smaller samples and should be read as directional. UK averages reported to Indeed, drawn from three to nine submissions per title, are approximately £46,400 for a business analyst, £58,600 for a senior business analyst, £91,100 for an associate, £117,100 for an engagement manager and £131,000 for a manager (Indeed UK Kearney salaries, July 2026, described by Indeed as approximations from third-party submissions).

For continental Europe and the Gulf, StrategyCase (May 2026) reports that DACH base salaries land at roughly 70 to 80 percent of the US level once converted to euros, with Zurich at the top of the band and stronger statutory health, pension and vacation benefits partly offsetting the nominal gap. London bases are given as £75,000 to £150,000 across levels with higher bonus volatility, and Middle East postings in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh carry similar nominal salaries to the US with a 25 to 35 percent effective take-home premium from the tax treatment.

Two cautions before using any of these to argue an offer. First, sample sizes in the single digits per title cannot support a precise claim. Second, statutory benefit value is real money that never appears in a salary column, so a European offer that looks 25 percent lower on paper is not 25 percent lower in outcome.

How long each Kearney level takes

Timelines below are candidate-reported and describe a typical path, not a guarantee.

Source: CaseStar Kearney associate, manager and partner pages, June 2026, which also report 55 to 75 hour weeks and 50 to 70 percent travel at manager level.

Read the timeline against the comp table and the compounding is obvious: the two promotions between associate and principal roughly double total compensation inside five years, which is a steeper curve than the entry-level gap to MBB suggests.

Negotiating a Kearney offer: what actually moves

Base salary at entry levels is banded and moves very little, because a firm that hires a cohort cannot pay one analyst more than the person sitting beside them without breaking the band. What does move:

• Signing bonus. The reported $20,000 to $45,000 MBA range is the widest single component and the one most often adjusted, particularly against a competing offer with a documented number.
• Level placement. For experienced hires this is worth more than any cash negotiation. Entering as a manager rather than an associate is a step worth roughly $84,000 in average total compensation on the Levels.fyi figures. Argue the scope of your prior work, not the salary.
• Start date and relocation. Lower stakes, more flexible, and worth asking about when the cash components are fixed.
• Nothing, if you have no alternative. A negotiation without a competing offer or a documented current package is a request, and it is usually answered with the band.

Two things that do not help: quoting an aggregate figure from a salary site as if it were an entitlement, and negotiating before the offer is formally extended. Bring your own current total compensation in writing, or a competing offer letter, or accept the band.

What Kearney compensation is worth on exit

Kearney's operations and procurement heritage shapes where its people go, and exit compensation is part of the value of the offer rather than a separate topic. Supply chain, operations strategy and procurement leadership roles in industry are the most common destinations, and private equity operating teams recruit from the firm for the same reason. The comparison worth making is not Kearney's year-one number against MBB's year-one number, but the two-to-four year exit package each opens. The mechanics of that calculation, including how title and tenure map to industry bands, are in the consulting exit opportunities guide.

One practical consequence: if the exit is the plan, the manager promotion is the milestone that changes your industry title, not the associate promotion. That argues for staying through the promotion cycle that also happens to be where Kearney's pay catches up with MBB.

The interview that unlocks the number

None of these figures pay out until you clear the process. Kearney runs candidate-led cases with a heavy operations and supply chain slant, and some MBA and experienced-hire invitations add a timed written case. Implementation specificity is what gets rewarded: a recommendation that names the supplier consolidation target beats one that says optimise procurement. The format, the worked examples and a prep plan are in the Kearney case interview guide, and the fit and motivation questions the firm actually asks are in Kearney behavioral interview questions.

Before the case rounds, the application itself has to survive a screen. If your resume or cover letter is not yet in consulting format, run it through the free consulting resume grader, then work from the consulting resume guide and the consulting cover letter guide.

If you are still applying, the Kearney resume guide and the Kearney cover letter guide cover the documents that get you to the interview.

Sources

All figures were checked on the dates listed below during a source pull on July 31, 2026.

• Levels.fyi: Kearney management consultant (median $190,000, range $129,000 to $383,000+, checked July 31, 2026)
• Levels.fyi: Kearney business analyst (median $110,000, checked July 31, 2026)
• Levels.fyi: McKinsey management consultant (checked July 31, 2026)
• Levels.fyi: BCG management consultant (checked July 31, 2026)
• Levels.fyi: Bain management consultant (checked July 31, 2026)
• CaseStar: Kearney associate salary (June 2026, New York anchored)
• CaseStar: Kearney engagement manager salary (June 2026)
• CaseStar: Kearney partner salary (June 2026)
• StrategyCase: Kearney salary (May 2026, regional bands)
• Indeed UK: Kearney salaries (July 2026, third-party submissions)
• Wikipedia: Kearney consulting firm (ownership, headcount, revenue, rebrand history)