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Bain Associate Consultant Salary: Base Pay (2026)
A Bain Associate Consultant earns a $112,000 base salary in 19 of 21 US H-1B filings. Bain now posts $120,000 for first-year Associate Consultants.
Bain pays an Associate Consultant, its undergraduate hire, a base salary of $112,000 in US H-1B filings from January 2025 to June 2026: 19 of 21 Associate Consultant filings name exactly $112,000, across 11 US cities. Bain's current Associate Consultant posting puts first-year base in the US at $120,000. Senior Associate Consultants are filed at $135,000 and Consultants at $192,000. Bain files fewer H-1B roles than McKinsey or BCG, so this level rests on 21 filings. Management Consulted's 2026 report adds up to $22,500 in performance bonus.
Where the numbers come from. Base salaries are from 21 Associate Consultant and other public US Department of Labor filings, worked out in code, the same filings as our Bain salary page. H-1B filings show base salary only: no bonus, signing bonus, profit sharing or benefits. Bonus figures come from the dated report named next to them.
Associate Consultant pay next to the levels above it
Median base salary in Bain's US H-1B filings, January 2025 to June 2026. Range is the 10th to 90th percentile of the filed salaries.
| Level | Filings | Median base | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate Consultant | 21 | $112,000 | $112,000 |
| Senior Associate Consultant | 13 | $135,000 | $135,000 |
| Consultant | 55 | $192,000 | $192K to $202K |
Every Senior Associate Consultant filing names $135,000. The step from Associate Consultant to Consultant is $80,000 at the median.
Associate Consultant salary by city
Cities with three or more filings for this level, by number of filings.
| City | Filings | Median base |
|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 4 | $112,000 |
| Washington, DC | 4 | $112,000 |
| Boston, MA | 3 | $112,000 |
Only three cities have three or more filings. The two filings off $112,000 are $105,000 in Boston and $117,000 in New York, both from August 2025.
What an Associate Consultant does
Bain's Associate Consultant posting calls the role ideal for final-year undergraduates, non-MBA master's students or early career professionals. Associate Consultants work on case teams embedded with clients and own discrete workstreams such as market sizing, financial modeling, scenario planning or benchmarking. The posting asks for a willingness to travel and work onsite with clients.
Posted pay against the filings
| Firm and level | Median base in filings | Posted first-year base |
|---|---|---|
| McKinsey Business Analyst | $112,000 | $112,000 to $125,000 |
| BCG Associate | $110,000 | $120,000 from January 1, 2027 |
| Bain Associate Consultant | $112,000 | $120,000 |
Filings are from January 2025 to June 2026. Posted pay is the US first-year base in each firm's job posting as we read it on October 26, 2026: McKinsey, BCG and Bain. BCG's are its US experienced-hire postings. Bain's $120,000 is $8,000 above the median Associate Consultant filing.
Bonus and benefits
From Management Consulted's Consulting Salaries Report 2026, which covers offers made in 2025 (via Poets&Quants, January 26, 2026): up to $22,500 in performance bonus, about $140,000 in the first year, a 401(k) contribution of up to $6,050 and 20 days of paid time off. Bain's posting lists an annual discretionary performance bonus and a 401(k) plan with an employer contribution.
How we got these numbers
US employers that hire someone on an H-1B visa must first file a Labor Condition Application with the US Department of Labor, stating the job title, work site and the wage they will pay. The DOL publishes every filing in its LCA disclosure data. We read the filings through h1bdata.info, a free search of that data, because the DOL's own quarterly files run to hundreds of MB. We read them on October 15, 2026.
- Filing window: filings submitted from January 2025 to June 2026, the latest the DOL has published.
- Filings counted: 89 across the rows shown, one per DOL case number.
- Job titles matched:
- Associate Consultant: "Associate Consultant" (21)
- Senior Associate Consultant: "Senior Associate Consultant" (13)
- Consultant: "Consultant" (55)
- Median: the middle filed salary for that title. Range: the 10th to 90th percentile, so a few unusual filings don't stretch it.
- Base salary only. An H-1B filing states the base wage. Bonuses, signing bonuses, profit sharing and benefits are not in it, so the bonus figures on this page come from the dated reports named next to them.
- Who is in it. Only roles filed for visa holders, at every US office. A filing is the wage the employer committed to pay, not proof of a hire.
- Bain files under Bain & Company Inc. and Bain & Company DC LLC.
Searches read:
Getting the offer
See Bain case interview examples for worked cases, and students can start with the Bain internship. Then work a Bain-style practice case out loud and rehearse the BCG and Bain fit questions. Our AI case interviewer asks follow-ups the way a real interviewer does, and you can start with a free week. More prep by firm and case type is on our consulting interview page.
Other levels: McKinsey Business Analyst, McKinsey Associate, BCG Associate, BCG Consultant, Bain Associate Consultant and Bain Consultant. Every firm we cover is on consulting salary. What each level does and where people go next is on our consulting career path guide.
Sources
- US Department of Labor, H-1B LCA disclosure data, filings submitted January 2025 to June 2026, via h1bdata.info, read October 15, 2026
- Bain & Company, Associate Consultant (job posting), read October 26, 2026
- Poets&Quants (Jeff Schmitt), citing Management Consulted's Consulting Salaries Report 2026, Consulting Pay: What MBAs Earned In 2025, January 26, 2026
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Bain Associate Consultant make?
A $112,000 base salary in 19 of 21 filings from January 2025 to June 2026, and $120,000 in Bain's current US posting. Management Consulted's 2026 report adds up to $22,500 in performance bonus.
Who joins Bain as an Associate Consultant?
Bain's posting names final-year undergraduates, non-MBA master's students and early career professionals.
How much does a Bain Senior Associate Consultant make?
All 13 Senior Associate Consultant filings name $135,000.
How much more does a Bain Consultant make?
A Consultant is filed at $192,000, $80,000 above an Associate Consultant. See Bain Consultant salary.
Does Bain pay Associate Consultants more than McKinsey and BCG?
The same as McKinsey and a little above BCG in the filings: $112,000 at Bain, $112,000 for a McKinsey Business Analyst and $110,000 for a BCG Associate. Bain and BCG now both post $120,000.
Related guides
- Bain Consultant Salary: Base Pay (2026)
- McKinsey Associate Salary: Base Pay (2026)
- BCG Consultant Salary: Base Pay (2026)
- Consulting Salary: Management Consultant Pay (2026)
- Bain Salary 2026: Base Pay by Level from H-1B Filings
- BCG Associate Salary: Base Pay (2026)