Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: October 21, 2026

 

Charles River Associates salary ranges from about $92,500 in base pay for a first-year analyst to more than $250,000 for a principal, with consulting associates starting between $100,000 and $126,500 according to CRA's own 2026 job postings. This guide breaks down what CRA pays at every level, how bonuses and overtime actually work, and how those numbers compare to an MBB offer.

 

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Key Takeaways

 

Charles River Associates pays analysts $92,500 to $105,000 in base salary and senior associates $130,000 to $152,500, with total compensation climbing past $250,000 at the principal level.

 

• Analyst base pay runs $92,500 to $105,000 in CRA's 2026 job postings

 

• Consulting associate, the entry role for master's and PhD hires, is posted at $100,000 to $126,500

 

• Senior associate roles are posted at $130,000 to $152,500 in base salary

 

• Some junior roles earn overtime instead of a bonus, which changes your total pay math entirely

 

• CRA base pay trails MBB by roughly $7,000 to $20,000 at the undergraduate entry level

 

• Summit and San Francisco show the highest median filed salaries of any US office

 

What Is the Average Salary at Charles River Associates?

 

The average Charles River Associates salary is roughly $110,000 in base pay across consulting roles. Glassdoor puts the typical range at $63,891 for a competition associate to $233,963 for a vice president, based on 1,474 reports as of June 2026. Department of Labor filings for CRA International show a median base salary of $110,000.

 

That single average hides more than it reveals. Pay inside economic consulting spreads wider by title than it does at generalist firms, and CRA is a place where a first-year analyst and an antitrust senior associate sit on the same case with a $130,000 gap between their paychecks.

 

The useful number is the one attached to your specific title, degree, and practice. Below is what each of those looks like.

 

What Does Charles River Associates Pay at Each Level?

 

CRA pay climbs in four clear steps: analyst, consulting associate, senior associate, then the officer track of associate principal and principal. Because CRA is subject to US pay transparency laws, the firm publishes base salary ranges directly on its job listings, which makes these figures far more reliable than crowdsourced estimates.

 

Level	Posted base range	Glassdoor median total pay	Typical background
Summer intern	$30 to $37.50 per hour	$25 to $45 per hour	Penultimate-year student
Analyst	$92,500 to $105,000	$88,345	Bachelor's degree
Consulting associate	$100,000 to $126,500	$123,571	Master's or PhD
Senior associate	$130,000 to $152,500	$149,918	3 to 6 years of experience
Associate principal	Not routinely posted	$198,541	6 to 10 years of experience
Principal	Not routinely posted	About $252,000	10 or more years

 

Sources: CRA job postings (2026), Glassdoor US salary reports (December 2025 to June 2026). Principal figure is a Glassdoor estimate rather than a posted range.

 

How much does a Charles River Associates analyst make?

 

A CRA analyst earns $92,500 to $105,000 in base salary. That figure comes from CRA's own 2026 posting for an analyst in the Labor and Employment practice, which states a good-faith base range and notes the role may be eligible for additional bonus incentive compensation.

 

You will notice the Glassdoor median of $88,345 sits below the bottom of that posted range. That gap exists because Glassdoor pools several years of self-reported data, including older submissions and lower-paying non-consulting roles. When those two sources disagree, trust the posted range, since it is what CRA is legally committing to for a live opening.

 

Analyst is the bachelor's-level entry point and the closest equivalent to a business analyst role at a strategy firm. The work skews heavily quantitative, with Stata, R, Python, and SQL appearing across most job descriptions.

 

How much does a Charles River Associates consulting associate make?

 

Consulting associates are posted at $100,000 to $126,500 in base salary across most practices. The Life Sciences policy group posts a narrower $110,000 to $126,500, which makes it the highest-paying entry band the firm advertises.

 

This is the master's and PhD entry point, and it is the single biggest lever on your starting number. Coming in with a graduate degree is worth roughly $8,000 to $22,000 in base pay on day one compared to entering as an analyst.

 

Glassdoor reports a median total pay of $123,571 for the title, based on roughly 200 submissions. Levels.fyi puts CRA management consultant total compensation at a median of $135,000 as of May 2026, which reflects a mix of associate and senior levels.

 

How much does a Charles River Associates senior associate make?

 

Senior associates are posted at $130,000 to $152,500 in base salary. CRA listed identical ranges for senior associate roles in both the Energy practice and the Forensic Services practice in 2026, which suggests the band is set firm-wide rather than by group.

 

Department of Labor filings tell a more interesting story. In 2024, CRA filed senior associate roles at a median base of $145,000 overall, but senior associate roles specifically in the antitrust practice were filed at a median of $222,500. Two of those filings, in Washington and Chicago, came in at $220,000 and $225,000.

 

The lesson: a single job title at CRA can carry a $75,000 spread depending on which practice you sit in. This is different from how the economic consulting career path gets described in most places, where levels are treated as uniform pay bands.

 

What do associate principals and principals earn?

 

Associate principals report a median total pay of $198,541 on Glassdoor, with a typical range of $165,000 to $281,000 across 61 submissions. Principals report an estimated average of about $252,000, with the 75th percentile near $340,000 and the top decile approaching $439,000 as of March 2026.

 

Department of Labor data confirms the shape. CRA filed associate principal roles in the antitrust practice at medians of $235,000 in 2024, with individual filings in Chicago reaching $245,000.

 

Above principal sit vice presidents and the officer group. Glassdoor lists vice president as the top salaried title at $233,963, though that figure almost certainly excludes the profit participation that drives real officer income.

 

How Much Do Charles River Associates Interns Get Paid?

 

CRA posted its Summer 2026 analyst and associate internships at $30 to $37.50 per hour. The program runs 8 to 10 weeks, so at 40 hours per week that comes to roughly $9,600 on the low end and $15,000 on the high end in total base pay.

 

Glassdoor reports CRA intern hourly rates between $25 and $45 as of February 2026, which brackets the posted range on both sides. The higher figures likely reflect PhD-level and specialized technical interns.

 

Return offers matter more than the hourly rate here. CRA states directly in its internship postings that successful interns are offered a full-time position following graduation, so the summer functions as an extended interview rather than a standalone paycheck. Compared against a broader consulting intern salary benchmark, CRA sits in the middle of the pack on hourly pay but well above average on conversion odds.

 

How Do Bonuses and Overtime Work at Charles River Associates?

 

Most CRA roles carry discretionary bonus eligibility, but a subset of junior roles are paid overtime instead. This is the detail that catches almost every candidate off guard, and it can swing your first-year total by tens of thousands of dollars in either direction.

 

Read the compensation paragraph at the bottom of any CRA listing and you will find one of two sentences. Most say the position may be eligible for additional bonus incentive compensation. A 2026 posting for a consulting associate in the Risk, Investigations and Analytics practice instead says the position is eligible for overtime pay in lieu of bonus incentive compensation.

 

That second structure is common in litigation support work, where hours spike hard around filing deadlines and expert report submissions. Here is the illustrative math on why it matters.

 

Let's say you join at $100,000 base, which works out to roughly $48 per hour across a 2,080-hour year. If you bill 12 extra hours a week for 30 weeks of the year at time and a half, that adds about $26,000 before any other compensation. On a bonus-eligible role at the same base, a typical discretionary bonus would need to hit 26% to match it.

 

The tradeoff is real, though. Overtime pay only shows up if the hours show up, and consulting hours per week in litigation-driven practices swing between quiet stretches and 70-hour weeks with little warning.

 

CRA does not publish a consulting signing bonus figure the way it publishes base ranges, so treat any number you find quoted online as unverified. Ask for it in writing.

 

Beyond cash, CRA lists a benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) with employer match, life and disability coverage, paid parental leave, and commuter benefits. The firm also commits to offering 100 hours of training annually, which is a genuine differentiator at the analyst level.

 

Why Does Pay Jump So Much at the Senior Levels?

 

The answer is in CRA's staffing pyramid, and it looks nothing like a strategy firm's. On its fourth-quarter earnings call, CRA disclosed that it ended fiscal 2025 with 959 consultants: 164 officers, 563 other senior staff, and 232 junior staff.

 

Junior staff make up just 24% of the consultant base. At a typical strategy firm, the bottom of the pyramid is the widest layer by a wide margin.

 

Run the revenue math and the reason becomes clear. CRA reported fiscal 2025 revenue of $751.6 million against those 959 consultants, which is roughly $784,000 of revenue per consultant at 77% utilization.

 

CRA does not sell staffing pyramids. It sells credentialed experts who testify, and clients pay for the name on the report, not the size of the team behind it. Having coached hundreds of candidates through offer decisions, I tell people the same thing every time: at CRA your pay tracks how close you are to owning an expert relationship, not how many years you have logged.

 

That structure explains both halves of the compensation curve. Junior pay is modest because juniors are not the product, and senior pay accelerates hard because senior people are.

 

How Does Charles River Associates Salary Compare to MBB?

 

CRA pays less than MBB at the undergraduate entry level and closes much of the gap for advanced-degree hires. An MBB undergraduate hire starts at roughly $112,000 in base salary, while a CRA analyst starts at $92,500 to $105,000.

 

Entry route	CRA base	MBB base
Undergraduate	$92,500 to $105,000	About $112,000
Master's or PhD	$100,000 to $126,500	About $112,000
Bonus structure	Discretionary or overtime	Discretionary plus signing

 

The comparison flips for PhD economists. A newly minted economics PhD entering CRA as a consulting associate can clear the MBB undergraduate base immediately, and the antitrust track then scales faster than a generalist consulting ladder does.

 

Where MBB pulls ahead decisively is the post-MBA jump. My breakdown of MBB salaries shows first-year MBA hires reaching $260,000 to $285,000 in total compensation, a step CRA has no direct equivalent for.

 

Do not treat this as a simple ranking. CRA offers deeper technical work, narrower expertise, and a credible path to expert testimony, none of which shows up in a base salary table. Candidates weighing a broader management consultant salary against a specialist track should price the exit paths, not just year one.

 

Does Salary Vary by Practice Area and Office?

 

Yes, and more than most candidates expect. Department of Labor filings from CRA International in 2024 show a $49,000 spread in median base salary between its highest-paying and lowest-paying US offices.

 

Office	Median filed base	Filings
Summit, New Jersey	$145,000	8
San Francisco	$115,000	5
New York	$112,500	4
Washington, DC	$110,000	11
Chicago	$102,500	6
Boston	$98,000	17
Oakland	$96,255	3

 

Source: US Department of Labor H-1B Labor Condition Application filings for CRA International, 2024. These cover sponsored roles only, so treat them as a sample rather than a full payroll picture.

 

Summit tops the list because it is CRA's Life Sciences hub, and the filings there skew toward senior associates and associate principals rather than analysts. Boston sits at the bottom despite being headquarters, for the opposite reason: it carries the largest volume of junior filings.

 

Practice area drives the bigger differences. Antitrust and Competition Economics filed the highest senior salaries of any group, while Labor and Employment analyst roles filed at $82,000 in Tallahassee. If you want the top of the band, the litigation consulting and antitrust groups are where the money concentrates.

 

How Do You Get a Higher Offer at Charles River Associates?

 

Your starting number is set mostly before you ever talk to a recruiter. These five moves have the largest effect on where you land inside the band.

 

Tip #1: Target the practice, not just the firm

 

The gap between antitrust and the lower-paying groups is larger than the gap between CRA and its peer firms. Apply directly to Antitrust and Competition Economics, Life Sciences, or Forensic Services if compensation is your priority.

 

These practices also carry the strongest expert-witness pipelines, which is what drives senior pay later.

 

Tip #2: Confirm whether the role is bonus-eligible or overtime-eligible

 

Ask this before you negotiate anything else, because it determines which lever is even available to you. An overtime-eligible role has a capped base but an uncapped year, while a bonus-eligible role works the other way around.

 

Get the answer in writing in your offer letter rather than relying on what a recruiter said on a call.

 

Tip #3: Enter with the advanced degree if you have it

 

A master's or PhD moves you from the analyst band to the consulting associate band, which is worth $8,000 to $22,000 on day one and compounds through every subsequent raise. CRA hires PhD economists directly into consulting associate roles and does not require them to spend time as analysts first.

 

If you are already mid-program, do not accept an analyst offer on the assumption you can retitle later.

 

Tip #4: Anchor on the posted range, not on crowdsourced averages

 

CRA publishes a real base range on every US listing, and that range is your negotiating floor and ceiling. Walking in citing a Glassdoor average that sits below the posted minimum will cost you money.

 

Screenshot the posting when you apply, since listings get taken down and ranges shift between cycles.

 

Tip #5: Line up a competing offer before you ask

 

Nothing moves a number inside a posted band like a written offer from a peer firm with a deadline attached. CRA competes for the same PhD and quantitative talent as other economic consultancies, and recruiters know it.

 

How you run the conversation matters as much as the competing offer itself, and my guide on how to negotiate a consulting offer walks through the exact scripts to use.

 

All of this only matters if you pass the interview first. The Charles River Associates case interview leans on economics and estimation rather than generic business frameworks, and it rewards precision over speed.

 

That is the exact skill set my case interview course drills, with structuring and math practice built for technical case formats.

 

Charles River Associates salary rewards specialization more than tenure, so the single most valuable decision you make is which practice you enter, not which offer number you sign. Pick the group with the strongest expert pipeline and the rest of the curve follows.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How much does Charles River Associates pay entry level?

 

Entry-level pay at Charles River Associates depends on your degree. Analyst roles, which hire bachelor's graduates, are posted at $92,500 to $105,000 in base salary in CRA's 2026 job listings. Consulting associate roles, which hire master's and PhD graduates, are posted at $100,000 to $126,500.

 

Does Charles River Associates pay a signing bonus?

 

CRA's public job postings state that positions may be eligible for additional bonus incentive compensation, but they do not disclose signing bonus amounts. No reliable public dataset breaks out CRA signing bonuses by level. Ask your recruiter directly for the signing figure in writing before you accept.

 

How much does a Charles River Associates senior associate make?

 

CRA posts senior associate roles at $130,000 to $152,500 in base salary as of 2026, across both the Energy and Forensic Services practices. Glassdoor reports a median total pay of $149,918 for the title. Department of Labor filings show senior associates in the antitrust practice filed well above that, at a median of $222,500 in 2024.

 

Is Charles River Associates salary higher than MBB?

 

No. MBB undergraduate hires start at roughly $112,000 in base salary, while CRA analysts start at $92,500 to $105,000. The gap narrows for master's and PhD hires entering as consulting associates, and some junior CRA roles earn overtime pay that MBB roles do not offer.

 

How much do Charles River Associates interns make per hour?

 

CRA posted its Summer 2026 analyst and associate internships at $30 to $37.50 per hour. Over the 8 to 10 week program at 40 hours per week, that works out to roughly $9,600 to $15,000 in total base pay. Glassdoor reports intern hourly rates between $25 and $45 as of February 2026.

 

Does Charles River Associates pay overtime?

 

Some junior roles do. CRA's 2026 posting for a consulting associate in the Risk, Investigations and Analytics practice states the position is eligible for overtime pay in lieu of bonus incentive compensation. Most other postings say the role may be eligible for bonus incentive compensation instead, so you should confirm which structure applies to your specific offer.

 

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