Consulting's salary squeeze coming to an end?...

Top Consultant's survey says: "UK-based consultancies are likely to face pent up pressure for pay rises over the next 12 months, according to the provisional findings from Top-Consultant’s 2003 salary survey.

Polling several thousand management consultants worldwide, the survey finds that over the last 12 months the majority of UK-based consultants have been hit by zero bonuses, pay freezes - or indeed both.

Taking the UK responses in isolation, 53% of the 1400 management consultants surveyed received no pay rise in the last 12 months. Of those that did secure a payrise, over half saw only a 1-5% rise in their base salary. By contrast, only 8% of all consultants achieved a pay rise in excess of 10%.

Coupled with the slow rate of growth in base salaries, UK consultants also fell on hard times in terms of bonuses. 56% of UK respondents received no bonus whatsoever in the last 12 months. The minority that did achieve a bonus mostly achieved 5% - 15% of salary, again lower than the 20%+ that would be expected in the boom years.

The result, according to Top-Consultant Director Tony Restell, is likely to be considerable pent-up demand amongst UK consultants for sizeable increases in remuneration:

'Speaking to consultants at several leading firms, there is dissatisfaction that career aspirations have not being met of late. Regular promotions, pay rises and bonuses are all seen as the quid pro quo for accepting the sometimes-harsh consulting lifestyle. In 2003 there has been no let up in pressure on consultants, hence many have been left feeling that pay expectations have not been met.'

'While the industry has clearly been through a period of turmoil in which s"