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Bain Consultant Salary: Base Pay (2026)
A Bain Consultant earns a $192,000 base salary in 43 of 55 US H-1B filings. Bain now posts $200,000, and the first year is about $285,000.
Bain pays a Consultant, the level it hires MBAs into, a base salary of $192,000 in US H-1B filings from January 2025 to June 2026: 43 of 55 Consultant filings name exactly $192,000 and the other 12 name $202,000, across 12 US cities. Bain's current Consultant posting puts first-year base in the US at $200,000. Managers above are filed at $212,000. With up to $63,000 in performance bonus and a $30,000 signing bonus, Management Consulted's 2026 report puts a Consultant's first year at about $285,000, the highest of the three top firms.
Where the numbers come from. Base salaries are from 55 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.
Consultant pay next to the levels around 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 |
| Manager | 38 | $212,000 | $212,000 |
The step up to Manager is $20,000 at the median, and every Manager filing names $212,000.
Consultant salary by city
Cities with three or more filings for this level, by number of filings.
| City | Filings | Median base |
|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 12 | $192,000 |
| Chicago, IL | 7 | $192,000 |
| Austin, TX | 6 | $192,000 |
| San Francisco, CA | 6 | $192,000 |
| Atlanta, GA | 5 | $202,000 |
| Seattle, WA | 5 | $192,000 |
| Boston, MA | 4 | $192,000 |
| Houston, TX | 3 | $192,000 |
The $202,000 filings are spread over 2025 and 2026 and over six cities, so they don't mark one office or one year. Atlanta's median is $202,000 on 5 filings.
What a Consultant does
Bain's Consultant posting lists an MBA from a top business school as the typical requirement, and encourages MDs, JDs, PhDs and experienced professionals to apply. A Consultant researches the client and its industry, runs interviews, focus groups and workshops, and forms hypotheses and works through the analysis.
Posted pay against the filings
| Firm and level | Median base in filings | Posted first-year base |
|---|---|---|
| McKinsey Associate | $192,000 | $192,000 |
| BCG Consultant | $190,000 | $200,000 from January 1, 2027 |
| Bain Consultant | $192,000 | $200,000 |
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 $200,000 is $8,000 above the median Consultant filing.
Bonus, signing bonus and benefits
From Management Consulted's Consulting Salaries Report 2026, which covers offers made in 2025 (via Poets&Quants, January 26, 2026): a Consultant gets $192,000 base, up to $63,000 in performance bonus and a $30,000 signing bonus, about $285,000 in the first year, with a 4.5% 401(k) contribution and 25 days of paid time off. The report's base matches the filings' median to the dollar.
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: 127 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)
- Manager: "Manager" (38)
- 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, 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 Consultant make?
A $192,000 base salary in 43 of 55 filings from January 2025 to June 2026, and $200,000 in Bain's current US posting. With bonus and signing bonus, Management Consulted's 2026 report puts the first year at about $285,000.
Who joins Bain as a Consultant?
Bain's posting names MBAs from top business schools, and MDs, JDs, PhDs and experienced professionals. Undergraduates join as Associate Consultants, filed at $112,000.
How much does a Bain Manager make?
Every Manager filing names $212,000, from 38 filings.
Does Bain pay Consultants more than McKinsey and BCG?
On base, about the same: $192,000 at Bain, $192,000 for a McKinsey Associate and $190,000 for a BCG Consultant in the filings. The bonus is where Bain leads: Management Consulted puts its first-year total about $15,000 above BCG's and $18,000 above McKinsey's.
Related guides
- Bain Associate Consultant Salary: Base Pay (2026)
- BCG Consultant Salary: Base Pay (2026)
- Bain Salary 2026: Base Pay by Level from H-1B Filings
- Consulting Salary: Management Consultant Pay (2026)
- Deloitte Consultant Salary 2026: Base Pay by Level and State
- Guidehouse Salary: Base Pay by Level (2026)