L.E.K. Salary 2026: LEK Consulting Pay by Level, Associate to Partner

L.E.K. Consulting pays a post-MBA Consultant a base salary of $185,000 in 2026, and it pays exactly that figure in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. That flat national band comes from certified US Department of Labor filings for LEK Consulting LLC, not from estimates: 162 records covering 2020 through 2025 show Consultant base rising from $165,000 in the 2020 to 2022 filings to $185,000 from 2023 onward, a 12% increase. Below that level, Levels.fyi puts the average undergraduate Associate package at $109,538 and the Associate Consultant package at $149,714 as of July 31, 2026. Above it, Managers filed at $241,500 and Managing Directors at $280,000, while reported Partner total compensation runs $510,000 to $1.1M once profit share is counted.

L.E.K. is also the least transparent tier-2 firm about compensation, which is why the public ranges are unusually wide. Glassdoor's US Consultant band spans $142,000 to $225,000 across 432 submissions. This page separates what is documented from what is reported, level by level, so you can price an offer instead of guessing at one.

How should you read L.E.K. pay numbers?

Three kinds of number appear on this page, and they are not interchangeable.

Filed base salaries come from certified Labor Condition Applications that L.E.K. must submit for sponsored hires. They are exact, dated, tied to a named office, and legally attested. They exclude bonus and signing entirely, and they only cover visa-sponsored employees, so they are a floor and a fact rather than a full package.

Platform averages from Levels.fyi are total-package figures that split base, bonus and stock. They cover a smaller sample than a firm-wide survey but they separate the components honestly.

Glassdoor bands are the widest sample and the loosest definition. A band like $115,000 to $168,000 for Associate mixes first-year hires with third-years, and mixes base-only entries with total-comp entries.

Where those three disagree, the filing wins on base and the platform wins on package shape. That distinction matters most at L.E.K. because its titles are unusual, which is the next problem.

L.E.K. salary 2026 at a glance

Total compensation below is the reported average package where a platform figure exists, and the reported band elsewhere. Base figures marked as filed come from the federal record.

Sources: H-1B filings for LEK Consulting LLC (162 records, 2020 to 2025), Levels.fyi LEK management consultant (updated July 31, 2026), Glassdoor L.E.K. Consulting US (2,154 submissions, July 2026), StrategyCase L.E.K. salary (May 12, 2026).

Why the L.E.K. title ladder breaks salary comparison

Most firms have one undergraduate entry title. L.E.K. has two similar-sounding ones at very different pay, and confusing them is the single most common way candidates misprice an offer.

• Associate is the undergraduate entry role. Average package $109,538.
• Associate Consultant is the master's or experienced-hire role, roughly $40,000 higher at $149,714 average package.
• Senior Associate Consultant sits between Associate Consultant and Consultant, filed at $110,000 base in Los Angeles in 2025 and reported at $126,000 to $188,000 by Glassdoor.
• Consultant is the post-MBA entry, filed at $185,000.

At McKinsey the equivalent undergraduate role is Business Analyst and the post-MBA role is Associate, so an "Associate" offer means something completely different at the two firms. Read our McKinsey salary breakdown if you are comparing the two ladders directly. The practical rule when you receive an L.E.K. offer: ignore the title and check the base against the filed figures in the table above.

What federal filings actually show L.E.K. paying

This is the part no estimate-based salary page carries. Every L.E.K. base salary below is a certified figure with a named city and a filing date, pulled from the H-1B disclosure record for LEK Consulting LLC on July 31, 2026.

Two findings come out of this record that no crowd-sourced range shows.

L.E.K. runs a flat national base. Nine of the eleven 2025 Consultant filings are $185,000 whether the office is Chicago or San Francisco. Only one San Francisco filing sits higher at $200,000. If a recruiter tells you the New York number is bigger than the Chicago number, the filings do not support it, and cost of living then does the rest of the work against you. Our consulting salary by city breakdown covers what that flat band is actually worth in each market.

The Consultant band moved once, in 2023. Across all 93 Consultant filings the median is $165,000, because the 2020 to 2022 cohort was filed at $165,000 and everything from 2023 onward at $185,000. That is a 12.1% step, and there is no further increase in the 2025 filings. Anyone quoting you $165,000 as the current number is reading pre-2023 data.

The caveat is real and worth stating: these filings cover sponsored hires only, list base salary alone, and say nothing about bonus. They are the floor of the package, not the package.

L.E.K. Associate salary 2026 (undergraduate entry)

The Associate role is L.E.K.'s undergraduate hire. Associates run research, build models, conduct expert interviews and own the analytical spine of a due-diligence workstream.

The spread between the Levels.fyi average and the Glassdoor band is the transparency problem in one line. Glassdoor entries frequently include bonus inside what respondents call salary, which inflates the low end of the band. Treat $95,000 to $110,000 as base and $110,000 to $135,000 as the realistic first-year cash number.

Undergraduate Associates typically hold the level two to three years. That is the window in which the two exits that define L.E.K. open up: private equity, and business school.

L.E.K. Associate Consultant and the PhD track

Associate Consultants enter with a master's degree or several years of prior experience, at an average package of $149,714 on a $134,714 base and a $15,000 bonus (Levels.fyi, July 31, 2026). Glassdoor's band is $118,000 to $185,000 across 223 submissions.

The more interesting number sits beside it. L.E.K.'s Life Sciences Specialist and PhD Analyst titles were both filed at a $152,500 base in 2025, in Boston and New York. That is the highest non-MBA entry base on L.E.K.'s ladder, and it exists because L.E.K.'s biopharma and medtech commercial due-diligence work needs people who can read a clinical trial readout without a translator. Glassdoor's US Life Sciences Specialist band runs $142,000 to $239,000 across 63 submissions, reflecting how long people stay in the track.

If you are targeting that entry point, the interview is the differentiator rather than the resume. The case content is heavy on market sizing for narrow indications and on patient-flow arithmetic, which is why our life sciences case interview walkthrough exists as a separate page from the general firm guide.

L.E.K. Consultant salary 2026 (post-MBA entry)

This is the level most people mean when they search for the L.E.K. salary.

The filed base of $185,000 sits above the reported base band of $145,000 to $175,000 published by CaseStar (June 2026) and StrategyCase (May 12, 2026). Both of those bands lean on candidate reports that span several years, so the disagreement is mostly a dating problem: $165,000 was the pre-2023 number. When you are negotiating, the $185,000 filing is the anchor to hold, and it is a matter of public record you can point to.

Levels.fyi puts the average Consultant package at $212,050, with $188,000 of that base and $24,400 bonus. Median total comp of $228,000 is reported elsewhere for the same level, which tells you bonus outcomes at this level are wide rather than that the base is uncertain.

L.E.K. Manager, Principal and Partner pay

Manager is where L.E.K. compensation stops trailing MBB. The filed Manager base of $241,500 appears in both New York and Chicago, and Levels.fyi puts the average Manager package at $311,667 on a $238,000 base and $73,300 bonus, which is the highest level in its L.E.K. dataset.

Partner economics at L.E.K. work the way they do at any private partnership: the base is a modest floor and the profit share carries the package. Because L.E.K.'s revenue is heavily weighted toward private equity commercial due diligence, Partner pay is also more cyclical than at a firm with a broader corporate client base. A slow deal year compresses the variable component that makes up most of the number.

Bonus, signing and retirement: what the offer letter guarantees

The distinction that costs candidates money is between guaranteed and discretionary components.

Guaranteed: base salary, signing bonus, and any relocation allowance. Signing bonuses at L.E.K. run roughly $18,000 to $32,000 for MBA and experienced hires. This is the only number in the package you can hold the firm to in writing before you start.

Discretionary: the performance bonus. At junior levels it runs around 15% of base, which matches the Levels.fyi averages ($14,264 on a $94,524 Associate base is 15.1%; $15,000 on $134,714 is 11.1%). At Manager it jumps to roughly 31% of base. Partner profit share is entirely discretionary and firm-performance dependent.

Benefits: medical, dental, vision, life and disability cover, a 401(k) with employer contribution, HSA contributions where applicable, and standard paid time off. L.E.K. does not publish a retirement match percentage, so treat any specific figure you read as unverified.

One structural perk is worth pricing. L.E.K. staffs locally, so consultants travel less than peers at firms running national staffing models. Reported travel is 40% to 60% against reported hours of 55 to 75 per week. That is a real quality-of-life difference against MBB, and it is also the reason the hours-adjusted comparison in the next section is less flattering than it looks.

L.E.K. salary in London and outside the United States

London is L.E.K.'s global headquarters, and it pays on UK market conventions rather than US ones.

Source: Glassdoor L.E.K. Consulting London, 887 submissions, July 2026. Glassdoor states the full London range as £41,000 for a first-year Associate to £147,000 for a Manager.

Post-MBA Consultants in London are reported separately at £100,000 to £130,000 base with £130,000 to £170,000 total, and Sydney post-MBA Consultants at AUD $200,000 to $280,000 (StrategyCase, May 12, 2026). Converted at face value the London package is below the US one, and the gap narrows rather than closes when you count pension contributions, holiday entitlement and healthcare. Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris and Munich follow local norms with smaller cohorts and more variable packages.

L.E.K. vs MBB and tier-2 pay in 2026

Comparing filed base salaries against each other removes the reporting noise, because every figure below comes from the same disclosure system for filings submitted during 2025.

L.E.K. sits $5,000 to $7,000 below Bain and BCG at post-MBA base, and above McKinsey's filed median, though McKinsey's filings include a wide spread of offices and start dates and its published 2026 post-MBA base is $192,000. At undergraduate level the gap is larger: MBB publishes a $112,000 undergraduate base for 2026, against L.E.K.'s roughly $94,500 average Associate base.

For the wider picture, compare the BCG pay breakdown and Bain pay breakdown, or read the full consulting salary guide for the cross-firm view. Among tier-2 peers, see Oliver Wyman pay and Kearney pay, and how tier-2 firms compare to MBB and boutiques on more than compensation.

The honest counterweight to the headline number: L.E.K.'s deal-cycle work pattern produces reported annual hours of 3,000 to 3,500 with 80 to 90 hour weeks around deal close, which puts hours-adjusted pay at roughly $70 per hour at post-MBA level against roughly $81 to $84 at MBB (StrategyCase, May 12, 2026). Those hour estimates are candidate-reported rather than firm-published, so treat the direction as reliable and the precision as approximate.

How long each L.E.K. level takes

Promotion timing is the real compensation lever, because a year saved at any rung is worth more than any negotiated signing bonus.

Source: Hacking the Case Interview, last updated June 2, 2026, which also reports that roughly 60% to 70% of consultants advance at each cycle and that the full Associate-to-Partner path takes 10 to 14 years.

Two of those transitions carry the largest pay steps. Associate to Associate Consultant is worth about $40,000 in package terms. Consultant to Manager is worth roughly $100,000. Everything between those two rungs is incremental by comparison.

Negotiating an L.E.K. offer: what actually moves

Consulting compensation is banded by class year, so the base is close to fixed. Three things are genuinely negotiable, and one is not.

Signing bonus moves. The $18,000 to $32,000 reported spread is real, and it widens with a competing offer in hand. This is where a documented competing package converts directly into cash.

Start date moves. A later start date can preserve a full bonus cycle at your current employer while your L.E.K. base clock still begins at the same class-year band.

Office and practice placement move the ceiling, not the offer. Healthcare consultants on private-equity-anchored work report earning at the upper end of each band because utilisation and billing rates are higher. That is a bonus-outcome difference rather than a base-band difference, and it compounds over three years.

Base almost never moves. The federal filings above show why: L.E.K. files the same $185,000 base across every office and effectively every Consultant hire. A firm that files identical base salaries across 11 hires and six cities is not running individual base negotiations. Push the signing bonus instead, and read our consulting offer negotiation guide before the call.

What L.E.K. pay is worth on exit

L.E.K.'s compensation is priced against its exits rather than against MBB's headline number, and the exits are unusually concentrated. Roughly 20% to 40% of L.E.K. leavers move into private equity or healthcare roles, which is high for a tier-2 firm and is a direct consequence of the commercial due-diligence workload.

That matters financially because a private equity associate role two to four years out typically resets total compensation well above the consulting ladder, with carried interest on top. The trade is that the buy-side interview tests a different skill set: LBO mechanics and investment judgement rather than pure case structure, which our private equity case interview guide covers separately. For the wider map of where consultants go and what the pay looks like at each destination, see consulting exit opportunities. If your target is a healthcare operator or provider role instead, healthcare consultant pay sets the benchmark.

Judged over a five-year horizon rather than on year-one cash, L.E.K.'s number is stronger than the headline gap to MBB suggests. Judged per hour worked during deal season, it is weaker. Both statements are true and you should decide which one you are optimising for before you accept.

The interview that unlocks the number

Every figure on this page is conditional on clearing an L.E.K. process that is quant-heavy, candidate-led, and ends with a written case that most candidates never rehearse. That written exercise is the single largest source of avoidable rejections at this firm.

The preparation sequence that maps to the process:

1. Read the L.E.K. case interview guide for the round structure and the written-case format.
2. Work through L.E.K.-style practice cases with full solutions, which carry the sector vocabulary the real cases use.
3. Rehearse fit answers against the firm's actual criteria with the L.E.K. behavioural question set.
4. Get the application documents past the screen first: the L.E.K. resume guide and L.E.K. cover letter guide, then run the document itself through the free consulting resume grader.
5. If you are still deciding whether L.E.K. is the right target at all, what L.E.K. Consulting does and who it hires is the firm overview.

Sources

All figures on this page were fetched and verified on July 31, 2026. Filed base salaries are certified Labor Condition Application records and exclude bonus.

• H-1B disclosure records for LEK Consulting LLC (162 certified filings, 2020 to 2025)
• Levels.fyi: LEK management consultant salaries (updated July 31, 2026)
• Levels.fyi: LEK Associate and LEK Associate Consultant
• Glassdoor: L.E.K. Consulting United States salaries (2,154 submissions, July 2026)
• Glassdoor: L.E.K. Consulting London salaries (887 submissions, July 2026)
• StrategyCase: L.E.K. salary 2026 (Florian Smeritschnig, May 12, 2026)
• Hacking the Case Interview: LEK Consulting salary by level (last updated June 2, 2026)
• CaseStar: L.E.K. Consultant compensation and L.E.K. Partner compensation (updated June 2026)
• H-1B disclosure records for Bain & Company Inc, Boston Consulting Group Inc and McKinsey & Company Inc United States (2025 filings)
• L.E.K. Consulting careers (official)