Bain pays a new Associate Consultant, its undergraduate hire, a base salary of $112,000 and a Consultant, the level MBA hires join at, $192,000, in US H-1B filings from January 2025 to June 2026. A Senior Associate Consultant is filed at $135,000, a Manager at $212,000 and a Senior Manager at $222,000. Management Consulted's 2026 report puts a Consultant's first year at about $285,000, the highest of the three top firms, with up to $63,000 in performance bonus and a $30,000 signing bonus.

Where the numbers come from. Base salaries are from 55 Consultant, 21 Associate Consultant and other public US Department of Labor filings, worked out in code. H-1B filings show base salary only: no bonus, signing bonus, profit sharing or benefits. Bonus and benefit figures come from the dated report named next to them.

Base salary by level

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
Senior Manager	19	$222,000	$222K to $247K
Associate Partner	6	$260,000	$260K to $270K

43 of 55 Consultant filings name exactly $192,000, across 12 US cities. Bain files fewer H-1B roles than McKinsey or BCG, so a few levels rest on small counts.

Bonus, signing bonus and benefits

From Management Consulted's Consulting Salaries Report 2026, which covers offers made in 2025 (reported by Poets&Quants, January 26, 2026):

Consultant (MBA hire): $192,000 base, up to $63,000 in performance bonus and a $30,000 signing bonus, about $285,000 in the first year. A 4.5% 401(k) contribution and 25 days of paid time off.
Associate Consultant (undergraduate hire): 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.
The trend: the report found starting pay at the top firms flat for a third year in a row.

The $192,000 Consultant base in the report matches the filings to the dollar.

Bain, McKinsey and BCG side by side

Level	McKinsey	BCG	Bain
Undergraduate hire	$112,000	$110,000	$112,000
MBA hire	$192,000	$190,000	$192,000
First manager level	$220,000	$225,400	$212,000

Median base salary in each firm's US H-1B filings. The levels are McKinsey's Business Analyst, Associate and Engagement Manager, BCG's Associate, Consultant and Project Leader, and Bain's Associate Consultant, Consultant and Manager. Full tables: McKinsey salary, BCG salary and management consultant salary across eight firms.

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: 152 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)
- Senior Manager: "Senior Manager" (19)
- Associate Partner: "Associate Partner" (6)
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:

bain & company: 2025, 2026

Getting the offer

Bain's first rounds are candidate-led cases plus fit questions. See Bain case interview examples for worked cases, then work a Bain-style practice case out loud and rehearse the BCG and Bain fit questions.

Sources

US Department of Labor, H-1B LCA disclosure data, filings submitted January 2025 to June 2026, via h1bdata.info, read October 15, 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 the median filing. Management Consulted's 2026 report adds up to $22,500 in performance bonus, about $140,000 in the first year.

How much does a Bain Consultant make?

A $192,000 base salary. With up to $63,000 in performance bonus and a $30,000 signing bonus, Management Consulted's 2026 report puts the first year at about $285,000.

How much does a Bain Manager make?

The median Manager filing is $212,000 and the median Senior Manager filing $222,000.

Does Bain pay more than McKinsey and BCG?

The base is the same or close: $192,000 at Bain, $192,000 at McKinsey and $190,000 at BCG for MBA hires. The difference is the bonus: Management Consulted puts Bain's first-year total about $15,000 above BCG's and $18,000 above McKinsey's.

Bain Salary 2026: Base Pay by Level from H-1B Filings