PwC Advisory - Public Sector Salaries

I heard PwC requires MBA applicants to apply to specific industries for summer internships in management consulting. I was wondering if anybody can shed light on the starting salaries for an associate in the public sector practice? I was under the impression the public sector practice pays a lot less than commercial practices but is this also true at PwC? On ManagmentConsulted.com, the starting salary is roughly $140,000 for the overall practice (I assumed this is for the commercial practice). Is this the same for the public sector? If not, does anybody know what the starting salary is? I know usually all full-time offers have the same base salary but wanted to confirm. Thank you for any input.

 
Best Response

In general, the salaries are lower for public sector. If I had to guess on the practice-wide average, maybe 20% or thereabouts. PwC is in the midst of standardizing compensation by service offerings (e.g., management consulting, technology, risk) and competencies (e.g., strategy, ERP-integration, cybersecurity). As you'd expect, the management consulting folks are paid best and generally come in post-MBA. The issue for public sector, is that the work is largely tech/risk, which bring down the average. As for the $140k number, that's probably total comp for Senior Associate first year post-MBA. They're paying half that for an Associate.

 

Pay is much lower. Senior Associates start out around 70K in public sector. Not sure how having an MBA affects it, but be prepared to have kids 2-3 years out of undergrad with no advanced degree at your level. Most Managers make between 95-115K, so I'd doubt they'd pay any Senior Associate much more than their lowest paid Managers. Hell, I'd imagine some Directors don't even make 140K or if they do, they barely hit it. Public Sector is not Strategy& or legacy Diamond. It's a-whole-nother world.

"Just go to the prom and get your promotion. That's the way the business world works. Come on, Keith!" - The Boss
 

Thanks for the response. Is your information based on personal experience or just general knowledge about the industry? I know the public sector pays less and the work is completely different (used to be in the consulting industry but on the commercial side). I wanted to know about MBAs in the public sector practice at PwC specifically.

 

I suspect you'll get more interesting responses if you put this in the context of career goals and other options. Where are you getting your MBA? Full-time, part-time, executive? Where did you last work? How many years experience? What are your other options?

The public sector pays less across the board. The public sector also doesn't have a compelling need for top-tier MBAs because PwC's clients don't particularly care, at least not enough to pay a big premium. That said, public sector may take a small number of MBAs each year and pay them similarly to FS, HC or PSI. However, the work isn't as interesting, advancement isn't as quick, and the comp won't rise as fast as the other industries.

 

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