Why are PE associates bases so low

Why haven’t PE associate base salaries increased even as IB base salaries have? My MF base salary is even with my 2nd year analyst salary. Even my friends who have higher base comp are only going up to ~$150k which is still not a huge increase over the $125k 2nd year IB salary.

I understand the total comp is much higher, but would be nice to get paid a more steady salary over the year.

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Simple answer - PE is not as boom and bust as IB. Very long return cycle and not dependent on volume of deals.

IB was unable to keep up with M&A demand in 2021, leading to basically abusing their juniors with workload and people quitting en masse. They were doing anything to hang onto their juniors (free Peloton, anyone?) and were forced to raise salaries to keep people. PE was busy but they are not like IB where they are dependent on doing a certain number of deals for revenue. People were not leaving at the same rates as IB so no need to jack salaries up.

Fast forward to today, IB salaries are sky high with not much work to do, hence large layoffs. PE is less busy of course, but they still have stuff to do. They still pay more than IB in total comp, so why give themselves less flexibility in guaranteeing more of it.

 

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