Compensation Market Value

Compensation Market Value - How do you best go about determining your current compensation market value in the management consulting industry?

As a general rule, in TODAY's market, you are most likely currently within 15%(+/-) of your "market compensation." We're defining market compensation as that amount of money another consulting firm would be will to pay you RIGHT NOW for your level of experience, education and skill-set.

If the following circumstances exist, you are most likely to be earning ~85% to 90% of your current market value:

Your current employer firm is performing poorly with little or no employee salary increases in the past few years.
Although bonus programs exist, little or no bonuses have been paid out in the past couple of years.
While you may have been due for a promotion, it has been/was deferred for a period of six months or more.

You MAY be earning 10% to 15% over your current market value if you find yourself in these circumstances:

You recently received a promotion (within the past several months) and received an increase in base compensation of 20% or more.
Bonus payments at your current firm have been substantial over the past couple of years and significantly higher than previous years. You have personally received much higher than average bonuses over the past couple of years.
Annual base pay increases over the past couple of years have been higher than 10% per year.

Very few people, in today's market, move from one consulting firm to join another consulting firm and receive anything much more than a 10% increase in compensation. A 10% or greater increase may be possible if the following circumstances exist:

You are currently at or below your market value in compensation
You have a high-demand skillset in a rapidly growing area of specialty
You are being recruited by a rapidly growing firm in need of top notch talent.

Take inventory of your current situation, your current firm, pattern of salary increase, and determine where you fall given all of the above factors, and you should be able to determine a range within 5% of your market value.

The definitive source of compensation is published by Kennedy Information (www.ConsultingCentral.com) in "Compensation & Benefits in Consulting 2006: Benchmarks, Trends, and Forecasts of the Profession". Extensively researched but very expensive for the individual user.

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