Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: September 5, 2026

 

Economic consulting salary ranges from about $92,000 for a first year undergraduate analyst to $265,000 for a PhD associate, based on 2025 US Department of Labor wage filings at firms like Analysis Group and Cornerstone Research. Most salary sites publish one blended average that buries this spread, so this guide breaks the numbers down by level, firm, degree, and city.

 

Before reading on:

 

Most candidates struggle to land interviews and even fewer turn them into offers. Watch my free training to learn how to triple your chances of landing interviews and increase your chances of receiving an offer by 8x.

 

👉 Watch for free

 

Key Takeaways

 

Economic consulting pay is set by your degree far more than by your years on the job: undergraduate analysts start near $87,000 to $115,000 in base salary, while PhD hires start between $170,000 and $265,000.

 

• Analysis Group filed 28 analyst roles at a $92,500 base in 2025 and paid $97,500 only in Washington DC

 

• Cornerstone Research associates cluster at a $230,000 median base, with individual filings reaching $265,000

 

• Compass Lexecon senior economists post a $225,000 median base and vice presidents reach $285,000

 

• Published averages swing from $89,969 to $172,785 because they blend analysts and senior economists into one number

 

• Bonuses sit outside every figure below, since Department of Labor filings report base salary only

 

What Is the Average Economic Consulting Salary?

 

The average economic consulting salary in the United States is roughly $172,785 per year according to 2026 Glassdoor data, but that single figure hides an enormous spread. Undergraduate analysts earn $87,000 to $115,000 in base pay. Master's hires start between $106,000 and $165,000, PhD hires between $170,000 and $265,000, and senior economists clear $225,000.

 

Every major salary site reports a different number, and none of them are exactly wrong. Payscale puts the 2026 average base at $99,298. Salary.com lists $89,969 as of January 2026, while Indeed reports $106,992 from job posting data updated in July 2026.

 

The gap comes down to sample mix. Sites that pull mostly from undergraduate analyst postings land near $90,000, and sites that draw from self-reported total compensation at senior levels land near $172,000. Neither tells you what your offer will actually look like.

 

Federal wage data gives you a firmer anchor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual wage of $115,440 for economists in May 2024, with the tenth percentile at $62,340 and the ninetieth at $212,710. Within management, scientific, and technical consulting services specifically, the median was $102,450.

 

What none of the aggregators show you is base pay by title at a named firm. That data exists, and it is public.

 

Before a firm can sponsor an H-1B worker, it must file a Labor Condition Application with the Department of Labor listing the exact base salary for that role, office, and title. Those filings are legally binding and they reflect the same salary bands US candidates are offered.

 

Every firm level figure below comes from 2025 filings unless noted otherwise. Keep in mind that these are base salary numbers only: bonuses, signing payments, and profit sharing sit on top.

 

How Much Does Economic Consulting Pay at Each Level?

 

Pay in economic consulting moves in steps tied to your highest degree, not in a smooth annual ladder. An undergraduate analyst earns $87,000 to $115,000, a master's level associate earns $106,000 to $165,000, and a PhD associate earns $170,000 to $265,000. Senior economists and vice presidents earn $225,000 to $285,000.

 

Level	Typical entry point	2025 filed base salary	Years in
Analyst	Bachelor's degree	$87,000 to $115,000	0 to 2
Senior Analyst	Internal promotion	$98,000 to $145,000	2 to 4
Research or Consulting Associate	Master's degree	$106,000 to $165,000	0 to 3
Associate	PhD in economics	$170,000 to $265,000	0 to 3
Senior Associate or Manager	Internal promotion	$220,000 to $265,000	4 to 8
Senior Economist or Vice President	Internal promotion	$225,000 to $285,000	8 or more

 

Source: 2025 Labor Condition Application filings from Analysis Group, Cornerstone Research, Charles River Associates, and Compass Lexecon. Partner and equity compensation does not appear in these filings, so no partner figure is published here.

 

Titles are the confusing part. What Cornerstone Research calls an Associate is a PhD hire, while at Charles River Associates an Associate can be a recent graduate, so the same word carries a gap of well over $100,000 depending on the letterhead. This is one reason consulting job titles trip candidates up when they compare two offers side by side.

 

The jump that matters most is analyst to associate. At Analysis Group, the 2025 analyst base was $92,500 and the associate base was $170,000, an 84% increase. At Cornerstone Research the same step ran from $105,000 to $230,000, a 119% increase.

 

In my experience at Bain, candidates badly underestimate how hard that wall is. You do not earn your way from analyst pay to associate pay by performing well for four years. You get there by going back for the degree.

 

How Much Do the Top Economic Consulting Firms Pay?

 

Cornerstone Research pays the most at the post-PhD level with a $230,000 median associate base, while Analysis Group and Compass Lexecon sit $60,000 to $85,000 below it. At the undergraduate level the order shifts, with Cornerstone Research at $105,000 and Charles River Associates as low as $87,000.

 

None of these are household names the way McKinsey is, and several would sit comfortably on any list of top boutique consulting firms if pay were the only criterion.

 

Firm	Undergraduate base	Post-graduate base	Data source
Cornerstone Research	$105,000 analyst	$230,000 associate	49 DOL filings, 2025
Analysis Group	$92,500 analyst	$170,000 associate	91 DOL filings, 2025
Compass Lexecon	$92,000 analyst	$145,000 economist	164 DOL filings
Charles River Associates	$87,000 analyst	$95,000 to $123,000 associate	12 DOL filings, 2025
Bates White	$91,049 Consultant I	Up to $206,545 managing consultant	486 Glassdoor salaries, July 2026
The Brattle Group	$87,115 research analyst	$173,468 associate	502 Glassdoor salaries, August 2026

 

What does Analysis Group pay?

 

Analysis Group filed 91 wage applications in 2025 at a $110,000 overall median. Analysts came in at a flat $92,500 across Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, and Denver, with Washington DC the only exception at $97,500. Senior analysts moved to $110,000, and Boston and New York senior analysts reached $115,000.

 

Above that, associates were filed at $170,000, rising to $180,000 in Washington DC, Dallas, and Boston, with one San Francisco associate at $225,000. Senior associates landed at $235,000 and $242,500, and managers at $230,000 to $235,000.

 

What does Cornerstone Research pay?

 

Cornerstone Research posted the highest median base of any firm in this set, at $207,500 across 49 filings in 2025, and more than half of those filings sat above $200,000. Analysts were filed at $105,000 to $115,000. Research associates, the master's level role, came in at $160,000 to $165,000.

 

PhD associates were filed at $195,000 to $265,000 with a $230,000 median. The firm also filed two associate financial economists at $207,500 and $270,000, plus a data science manager at $265,000.

 

What do Charles River Associates and Compass Lexecon pay?

 

Charles River Associates runs the widest internal spread. Its 2025 Oakland filings show a competition practice analyst at $87,000, associates at $95,000, consulting associates at $106,000 to $123,000, and a senior associate at $220,000. A 2026 campus posting for bachelor's and master's graduates listed a base wage range of $91,000 to $95,000.

 

Compass Lexecon files by economist track rather than by consultant track. Analysts sit at a $92,000 median and senior analysts at $98,000, economists at $145,000, senior economists at $225,000, and vice presidents at $285,000. Both firms build their business around antitrust and litigation consulting work, which is where the expert testimony premium lives.

 

How Much More Do You Earn With a PhD in Economic Consulting?

 

A PhD nearly doubles your starting base in economic consulting. Analysis Group filed PhD associates at $170,000 against a $92,500 analyst base, and Cornerstone Research filed them at $230,000 against $105,000. That is an 84% to 119% premium on day one, before any bonus.

 

The premium compounds after that. Compass Lexecon senior economists carry a $225,000 median base, its Washington DC senior economists sit at $250,000, and vice presidents reach $285,000. No undergraduate track at these firms leads to those numbers without a doctorate.

 

That math is why so many economics doctoral students seriously weigh consulting as a PhD long before they finish the dissertation. The catch is time: a five to six year doctorate costs you five to six years of analyst and senior analyst earnings.

 

A master's degree is the middle path. Cornerstone Research research associates were filed at $160,000 to $165,000, roughly $55,000 above the analyst band and $70,000 below the PhD band.

 

How Does Economic Consulting Salary Compare to Management Consulting?

 

The top economic consulting firms now pay more than McKinsey at the post-graduate level. McKinsey filed its 2025 associate roles at a flat $192,000 base, while Cornerstone Research filed PhD associates at a $230,000 median. Analysis Group, at $170,000, comes in below McKinsey.

 

At the undergraduate level the two fields are close. McKinsey business analyst filings carry a $90,000 median across the full Department of Labor record, which sits inside the $87,000 to $115,000 economic consulting analyst band. A management consultant salary at entry level is not the premium most candidates assume it is.

 

Career stage	Economic consulting base	McKinsey base
Undergraduate entry	$87,000 to $115,000	$90,000 business analyst median
Post-graduate entry	$170,000 to $265,000	$192,000 associate, 2025
Firm-wide median base	$110,000 to $207,500	$192,000 in 2025

 

Pay is not the only variable. Management consulting still wins on brand recognition, faster promotion cycles, and consulting exit opportunities into private equity and corporate strategy. Economic consulting wins on technical depth, subject matter ownership, and the chance to build a name as a testifying expert.

 

How Do Bonuses and Total Compensation Work in Economic Consulting?

 

Bonuses sit entirely outside the Department of Labor figures, which report base salary only. Payscale's 2026 data shows economic consultant bonuses ranging from $1,000 to $36,000, with total pay running $72,000 to $197,000. Glassdoor puts average total pay at $172,785 and ninetieth percentile earners at $311,944.

 

Verified firm level data tells a similar story. Reported total compensation at The Brattle Group had a $122,948 median as of May 2026, spanning $95,475 for a business analyst up to $190,944 for a data scientist.

 

Two things make the total package better than it looks on paper. Economic consulting hours per week run lighter than investment banking in most practice areas, so the effective hourly rate is stronger than the headline suggests. Pay is also close to all cash: Payscale reports profit sharing of $0 to $3,000 against bonuses of up to $36,000, so there is no deferred equity to discount.

 

Which Cities Pay Economic Consultants the Most?

 

Washington DC is the only city where these firms reliably pay a premium for the same title, and even there the gap is modest. Analysis Group filed Washington DC analysts at $97,500 against $92,500 in every other office, and Washington DC associates at $180,000 against $170,000. Compass Lexecon pays its Washington DC senior economists $250,000 against a $225,000 firm median.

 

City level medians look far more dramatic than that. Cornerstone Research's 2025 medians ran $230,000 in Chicago and Menlo Park, $218,750 in Boston, and $115,000 in Los Angeles, a spread that reflects which titles each office happened to file rather than what any single title pays there.

 

City	Cornerstone Research	Analysis Group	Compass Lexecon
Chicago	$230,000	$101,250	$135,000
Boston	$218,750	$115,000	$96,500
Washington DC	$212,500	$180,000	$110,000
San Francisco	$200,000	$101,250	Not filed
New York	$145,000	$110,000	$122,500
Los Angeles	$115,000	$110,000	$105,000

 

Source: Labor Condition Application filings. Cornerstone Research and Analysis Group figures are 2025 medians. Compass Lexecon figures span all filing years.

 

Here is the finding that surprises most candidates: the major economic consulting firms barely adjust junior base pay by city. Analysis Group filed the identical $92,500 analyst base in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, and Denver in 2025, and only Washington DC broke the pattern at $97,500.

 

Cornerstone Research does the same thing, filing analysts at $105,000 in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington DC alike. A $105,000 analyst offer in New York buys far less than the same offer in Dallas, and no adjustment is coming.

 

How Can You Increase Your Economic Consulting Salary?

 

There are five levers that actually move your number, and only one of them is negotiation.

 

Tip #1: Target the firms that file the highest bands

 

The gap between Cornerstone Research at $230,000 and Analysis Group at $170,000 for the same PhD role is $60,000 a year. No amount of negotiating closes that, because both firms file standardized bands by title and office.

 

The economic consulting career path rewards getting the firm choice right at entry far more than it rewards outperforming once you are inside.

 

Tip #2: Earn the advanced degree before you take the title

 

Firms pay for the credential, not for the years you spent waiting on one. Analysts I have coached who hoped to be promoted into associate pay without a graduate degree found that the band simply does not exist at most firms.

 

If you want the $170,000 to $265,000 range, decide on the master's or PhD early enough that you are not paying for it with lost earning years.

 

Tip #3: Prepare for the case interview, because that is where the pay gap is decided

 

You do not negotiate your way into a Cornerstone Research offer. You interview your way into one, and the format is closer to a strategy case than most economics students expect.

 

The economic consulting case interview leans on market sizing, damages estimation, and reading regression output out loud, and it rewards clean structure over cleverness.

 

Firm specific rounds vary more than candidates expect, and the Cornerstone Research case interview in particular puts heavy weight on quantitative reasoning under time pressure.

 

If you want to get case ready fast, my case interview course walks you through proven strategies in as little as 7 days.

 

Tip #4: Ask for the competing offer in writing

 

Base bands are published, so the honest lever is a written competing offer at a higher band. A Cornerstone Research letter is the single most useful document an Analysis Group candidate can hold.

 

The mechanics of how to negotiate a consulting offer work the same way here as in strategy consulting, with one difference: economic consulting recruiters move on start date and signing bonus far more readily than on base.

 

Tip #5: Do not assume a high cost city means higher pay

 

Since analyst base is flat across offices at most of these firms, choosing New York over Dallas is a real pay cut. Run the rent numbers before you rank your office preferences.

 

The single most useful thing you can do with economic consulting salary data is stop reading blended averages and start comparing filed bands for your exact degree level. Pull the Department of Labor filings for the two or three firms you are targeting, match your credential to the title, and you will know your offer before it arrives. Then put your preparation where the money is actually decided: the interview.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How much does an entry level economic consultant make?

 

Undergraduate analysts at top economic consulting firms earned $87,000 to $115,000 in base salary in 2025 Department of Labor filings. Charles River Associates sat at the bottom of that band at $87,000 and Cornerstone Research at the top at $105,000 to $115,000. Bonuses are paid on top of these figures and are not included in the filings.

 

Do you need a PhD to earn a high economic consulting salary?

 

You need a graduate degree to reach the highest bands and a PhD to reach the top of them. Analysis Group filed PhD associates at $170,000 against a $92,500 analyst base, and Cornerstone Research filed them at $230,000 against $105,000. A master's degree lands you in between, at roughly $160,000 at Cornerstone Research.

 

Which economic consulting firm pays the most?

 

Cornerstone Research pays the most at the post-PhD level, with a $230,000 median associate base and individual 2025 filings reaching $265,000. Compass Lexecon pays the most at the very top, with vice presidents at a $285,000 median. Analysis Group and Charles River Associates trail both at the post-graduate levels.

 

Does economic consulting pay more than management consulting?

 

At the post-graduate level, the top economic consulting firms now pay more. Cornerstone Research filed PhD associates at a $230,000 median in 2025 while McKinsey filed its associates at a flat $192,000 base. At the undergraduate level the two are close, with McKinsey business analysts at a $90,000 median against an $87,000 to $115,000 economic consulting analyst band.

 

How much do economic consultants make after 5 years?

 

Five years in, most economic consultants have either left for graduate school or moved into a senior analyst, research associate, or associate role. Those bands ran $98,000 to $165,000 on non-PhD tracks and $170,000 to $265,000 on PhD tracks in 2025 filings. Senior associate and manager roles, usually reached later, were filed at $220,000 to $265,000.

 

Is economic consulting a well paying career?

 

Yes, and it pays better than the aggregate figures suggest. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a $115,440 median annual wage for economists in May 2024 across all employers, while filed base salaries at top economic consulting firms reached $230,000 at the associate level and $285,000 at vice president. The tradeoff is a slower title ladder than strategy consulting and a hard degree requirement above the analyst level.

 

Everything You Need to Land a Consulting Offer

 

Need help passing your interviews?

• Case Interview Course: Become a top 10% case interview candidate in 7 days while saving yourself 100+ hours
  
  
• Fit Interview Course: Master 98% of consulting fit interview questions in a few hours
  
  
• Interview Coaching: Accelerate your prep with 1-on-1 coaching with Taylor Warfield, former Bain interviewer and best-selling author

 

Need help landing interviews?

• Resume Review & Editing: Craft the perfect resume with unlimited revisions and 24-hour turnaround

 

Need help with everything?

• Consulting Offer Program: Go from zero to offer-ready with a complete system

 

Not sure where to start?

• Free 40-Minute Training: Triple your chances of landing consulting interviews and 8x your chances of passing them