Management Consultant Salary 2026/27: What You Take Home
Management consultants and business analysts had a full-time median of £53,295 (ONS ASHE 2025), with a very wide spread - a 90th percentile of £93,362 - and LLP partners outside the survey altogether. Most consultants sit above the £50,270 higher-rate threshold, and senior pay hits the 60% personal-allowance-taper band.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £53,295
- ASHE 2025, 25th to 90th percentile
- £40,202–£93,362
- Take-home at median
- £41,469 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 37% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you between the 50th percentile (£39,039) and the 75th percentile (£54,009) of UK full-time earnings.
What influences management consultant pay
The ONS ASHE 2025 full-time median for management consultants and business analysts was £53,295 (provisional, Table 14.7a Annual pay Gross, SOC 2020 "Management consultants and business analysts"), with a 25th-to-90th percentile range of £40,202 to £93,362. The spread is wide because the group runs from graduate analysts to senior principals. ASHE also counts employee jobs only: partners in an LLP are self-employed members rather than employees, so partner profit shares at the large firms are outside the survey altogether.
Firm, grade and specialism drive where a consultant sits in the range, but ONS does not split the group by any of them. ASHE annual gross pay includes bonus and incentive payments actually received, so bonuses are already inside the figures; what share of pay they make up at a given firm is not published.
Tax is a big factor at this level. Most consultants above £50,270 pay 40% Income Tax and 2% NI on the portion over it. Salary plus bonus above £100,000 loses the personal allowance at £1 for every £2, creating a 60% effective marginal rate between £100,000 and £125,140, and pay above £125,140 is taxed at the 45% additional rate. A pension contribution that reduces adjusted net income is the usual way to manage the £100,000 threshold.
Career progression
- ASHE does not publish consultancy pay by grade. These are points in the April 2025 full-time pay distribution for SOC 2020 2431.
- Lower quartile: £40,202.
- Median: £53,295.
- Upper quartile: £70,977.
- 90th percentile: £93,362.
- Partners in an LLP are self-employed members, so their profit shares are outside ASHE.
Frequently asked questions
- What is take-home for a £53,295 management consultant?
- On £53,295 with a 5% salary-sacrifice workplace pension, take-home is about £39,923 a year (about £3,327 a month) after 20% Income Tax to £50,270, 40% on the slice above it, 8% National Insurance to £50,270 and 2% above. A net pay scheme gives slightly less, because National Insurance is then charged on the full gross. Bonus is taxed on top at the same 40% marginal rate.
- Why is the management consultant salary range so wide?
- Because the ONS group runs from graduate analysts to senior principals across boutique, in-house and large firms, with a 10th percentile of £29,980 and a 90th of £93,362. Partners in an LLP are not employees, so their profit shares are not in ASHE at all, and the top of the profession is above anything the survey shows.
- Do management consultants hit the 60% tax trap?
- Those with adjusted net income between £100,000 and £125,140 do. The personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 earned, which stacks with 40% Income Tax to give an effective 60% Income Tax rate, or 62% with the 2% NI. Even the ASHE 90th percentile, £93,362, is below it, so it affects only the best-paid. A pension contribution by salary sacrifice, net pay or relief at source brings adjusted net income down and restores the allowance.