FTI Consulting Salary: Pay for All 6 Career Levels

Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: September 6, 2026

 

FTI Consulting salary ranges from roughly $96,900 in total compensation for entry-level Consultants to about $369,500 for Managing Directors in the United States, based on 2026 Levels.fyi data. This article breaks down pay at all six FTI levels, how compensation shifts across the firm's five practices and major cities, and what the package includes beyond base salary.

 

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Key Takeaways

 

FTI Consulting pays entry-level Consultants roughly $96,900 in total compensation and Managing Directors roughly $369,500, with bonuses taking up a larger share of the package at every step up the ladder.

 

  • Entry-level Consultants average about $90,500 in base salary plus a $6,400 bonus

 

  • Managing Directors average about $282,800 in base salary plus an $86,700 bonus

 

  • Bonuses run about 7% of base at Consultant and jump to roughly 31% at Managing Director

 

  • Economic Consulting bills at the highest average rate of any FTI practice at $583 per hour

 

  • Each of the six FTI levels takes two to three years to clear on average

 

  • Senior Managing Directors can receive forgivable loans that vest over two to nine years of service

 

What Is the Average FTI Consulting Salary?

 

The average FTI Consulting salary in the United States is about $118,300 in total compensation, according to Levels.fyi data updated in August 2026. Pay runs from roughly $96,900 for entry-level Consultants to about $369,500 for Managing Directors, with base salary making up most of the package at every level below Managing Director.

 

You will see a very different number if you check Glassdoor. Its August 2026 data, drawn from 3,897 submissions, puts the range at $64,601 for an Internship to $252,871 for a Managing Director.

 

The gap is not a contradiction: the two sites sample different populations. Glassdoor pulls in administrative, marketing, and operations roles across FTI's 8,118 employees, while Levels.fyi skews heavily toward the 6,421 billable consulting professionals the firm reported at the end of 2025.

 

If you are weighing an offer for a client-facing consulting seat, the Levels.fyi figures are the better benchmark. Use the Glassdoor numbers as a floor check rather than a target.

 

What Are FTI Consulting Salaries by Level?

 

FTI Consulting uses six staff levels in most of its practices: Consultant, Senior Consultant, Director, Senior Director, Managing Director, and Senior Managing Director. Total compensation roughly quadruples from the entry level to Managing Director. The table below shows average reported pay for each rung in the United States.

 

Level

Base salary

Annual bonus

Total comp

Consultant (L1)

$90,500

$6,400

$96,900

Senior Consultant (L2)

$118,000

$13,800

$132,000

Director (L3)

$162,000

$19,600

$181,000

Senior Director (L4)

$207,000

$26,700

$234,000

Managing Director (L5)

$282,800

$86,700

$369,500

Senior Managing Director (L6)

Negotiated

Negotiated

Not benchmarked

 

Source: Levels.fyi FTI Consulting Management Consultant data, 2026. Senior Managing Director pay is set through individual employment agreements and is not reported consistently enough to publish a reliable average.

 

Run the bonus math and one pattern jumps out. The bonus is worth about 7% of base at Consultant, then settles into a narrow band of roughly 12% to 13% across Senior Consultant, Director, and Senior Director.

 

Then it explodes. At Managing Director the average $86,700 bonus is about 31% of base pay, because that is the level where you start being paid for revenue you originate rather than hours you bill.

 

This matters for how you evaluate an offer. Below Managing Director, negotiating base salary is worth far more than negotiating bonus target, since the bonus is a small and discretionary slice of a package that already sits within a defined band.

 

How Much Do FTI Consulting Interns Get Paid?

 

FTI Consulting pays Consultant Interns $28.00 per hour for the Summer 2026 program in New York City, according to Levels.fyi. Glassdoor's August 2026 data, based on 137 submissions, shows a wider band of $27 to $48 per hour across all intern titles at the firm.

 

At $28 per hour over a 10-week summer at 40 hours per week, an FTI Consulting internship pays roughly $11,200 before any housing stipend or overtime. That sits below what the strategy houses pay their summer analysts, which is worth knowing before you turn down a competing offer on money alone.

 

The higher end of the Glassdoor band mostly reflects graduate-level and technology interns rather than undergraduates. If you are an undergraduate, anchor your expectations near the bottom of that range rather than the middle, which is also true of consulting intern salaries across the industry.

 

How Does FTI Consulting Salary Vary by Practice?

 

Practice choice moves your FTI Consulting salary more than almost any other decision you control. FTI runs five reportable segments, and the average hourly rate each one bills to clients sets a hard ceiling on what it can pay staff. Here is what the firm disclosed for full year 2025.

 

Segment

Revenue

Billable staff

Bill rate

Utilization

Corporate Finance

$1.55B

2,297

$529

60%

Forensic and Litigation Consulting

$764.7M

1,541

$442

57%

Economic Consulting

$720.8M

1,014

$583

59%

Strategic Communications

$378.5M

907

Not billed hourly

Not reported

Technology

$373.9M

662

Not billed hourly

Not reported

 

Source: FTI Consulting full year 2025 financial results.

 

Economic Consulting bills at the highest average rate of the three hourly practices at $583 per hour. That practice is stacked with PhD economists and testifying experts, and its pay bands for quantitative roles reflect the credential premium that economic consulting work commands.

 

Corporate Finance is the money engine of the firm at $1.55 billion, or 41% of 2025 revenue. It houses turnaround and restructuring consulting, transactions, and business transformation, and its bonus pool gets a lift from success fees that no other practice earns at the same scale.

 

Forensic and Litigation Consulting sits at the bottom of the hourly practices at $442 per hour. Strategic Communications and Technology are not billed by the hour at all, and their compensation bands generally trail the three hourly practices at equivalent titles.

 

Here is the practical read. If money is your top criterion, target Corporate Finance for total upside and Economic Consulting for the highest technical pay bands, and treat Strategic Communications as the practice where you are trading pay for a different kind of work.

 

How Does FTI Consulting Salary Vary by City and Country?

 

Location adds roughly 10% at the entry level in the highest-paying US market and cuts pay sharply outside the United States. New York City Consultants average about $107,000 in total compensation against a $96,900 national figure, per Levels.fyi. FTI generated 63% of 2025 revenue from US-based professionals, so American offices anchor the top of the global pay range.

 

Market

Reported range

Source and date

United States

$96,900 (L1) to $369,500 (L5)

Levels.fyi, August 2026

New York City area

$107,000 (L1) to $378,000 (L5)

Levels.fyi, August 2026

Greater London

£83,100 (L2) to £104,000 (L3)

Levels.fyi, April 2026

United Kingdom overall

£32,000 (graduate) to £225,000 (SMD)

Glassdoor, June 2026

 

The London gap is bigger than the exchange rate explains. A Greater London Senior Consultant reports a median package of about £82,867 against $132,000 in the United States, which is a meaningful discount once you convert at any reasonable 2026 rate.

 

Do not read a New York offer as automatically better than a Chicago or Washington one either. Levels.fyi shows a median New York package near $103,500 across all reported levels, which is below the national median because the New York sample is weighted toward junior submissions.

 

What Is Included in an FTI Consulting Compensation Package?

 

An FTI Consulting offer has six components, and only two of them show up in the number the recruiter quotes you first. Base salary and the annual bonus do most of the work at junior levels, while loans and success-linked pay dominate at the top.

 

  • Base salary: 75% to 93% of total compensation depending on level, paid on a defined band per title and practice

 

  • Annual bonus: discretionary and tied to individual performance, utilization, and practice results, ranging from about 7% to 31% of base

 

  • Signing bonus: a median of $15,000 for reported Management Consultant offers, paid once and separate from the recurring annual bonus

 

  • Forgivable loans: cash advanced to senior hires that is forgiven with accrued interest over two to nine years of continued service

 

  • Success fees: outcome-linked revenue in Corporate Finance that feeds the variable pool for restructuring and transactions teams

 

  • Benefits: a company-matching 401(k), insurance plans, transit benefits, and a stated liberal vacation policy

 

The forgivable loan piece is the part almost nobody outside the firm understands, and it is where FTI's model differs most from a traditional partnership. FTI's 2025 annual report discloses written employment agreements with substantially all of its 798 Senior Managing Directors, and those agreements may include cash, equity, or loans tied to performance and service requirements.

 

The scale of this is growing fast. FTI's notes receivable balance climbed from $109.1 million at the end of 2024 to $250.7 million at the end of 2025, and the firm attributed lower operating cash flow partly to higher forgivable loan issuances.

 

Read that as a retention handcuff, not free money. If you take a senior offer heavy on forgivable loans and leave in year three of a nine-year forgiveness schedule, you can owe a large unamortized balance back, so understand the consulting bonus structure in your specific agreement before you sign.

 

How Does FTI Consulting Salary Compare to Other Consulting Firms?

 

FTI Consulting pays less than the two restructuring specialists it recruits against most directly. Its median reported total compensation of $118,300 trails Alvarez and Marsal at $135,556 and sits well below AlixPartners at $221,603, all from 2026 Levels.fyi data.

 

Firm

Median total comp

Highest reported package

FTI Consulting

$118,300

$381,000

Alvarez and Marsal

$135,556

$390,000

AlixPartners

$221,603

$436,750

 

Source: Levels.fyi company pages, 2026. Highest reported packages are for Management Consultant roles at each firm.

 

Treat the median column with care. AlixPartners hires at a more senior average entry point and has a smaller reported sample, so a chunk of that $103,000 median gap is population mix rather than a like-for-like pay difference between two Senior Consultants doing the same work.

 

The top-of-band numbers tell a cleaner story. At the very top the three firms land within about $56,000 of each other, which means the ceiling at FTI is competitive even where the median is not.

 

Against the Big Four advisory arms the comparison flips in FTI's favor at senior levels. A Big Four practice spreads its variable pool across a far larger and more junior base than a Deloitte consulting salary band suggests at the same title.

 

Pay is also only one input into why FTI Consulting wins candidates away from banking and law. The expert-witness and large-cap restructuring work is genuinely hard to get anywhere else at that scale.

 

How Fast Does Your FTI Consulting Salary Grow?

 

FTI states that professionals should expect to spend two to three years at each of its six levels, with promotion based on meeting the competencies of the next level rather than years of service. On that pace, moving from Consultant to Managing Director takes roughly 10 to 15 years and lifts total compensation about 3.8 times, from $96,900 to $369,500.

 

The single largest raise on that path is the Senior Director to Managing Director step, worth about $135,500 in average total compensation. Every other promotion adds between $35,000 and $53,000.

 

Three things move you faster than the two-to-three year default, based on what I have seen coaching candidates into and through firms with this structure:

 

  1. Utilization: FTI reported segment utilization between 57% and 60% in 2025, and consistently billing above your practice average is the cleanest promotion argument you can make

  2. A specialty: certifications the firm sponsors, such as insolvency and fraud examination credentials, shorten the case for promotion in Corporate Finance and Forensic and Litigation Consulting

  3. Origination: bringing in work, even small scopes, is what separates a Senior Director who makes Managing Director from one who does not

 

Understand what happens after Managing Director too, because the model changes. Senior Managing Director compensation is set through an individual employment agreement rather than a band, which puts it closer to consulting partner salaries than to a graded corporate ladder.

 

How Do You Negotiate a Higher FTI Consulting Salary?

 

You have the most negotiating room on the signing bonus and on level placement, and the least on base salary, which sits in a defined band per title and practice. Candidates who push on the wrong lever walk away with nothing. Here are the five moves that actually work.

 

Tip #1: Anchor on total compensation, not base salary

 

Recruiters quote base first because it is the number they control least. Ask for the base band, the target bonus percentage, and the signing amount as three separate figures before you respond with any number of your own.

 

Tip #2: Bring a competing offer before you name a number

 

Nothing else moves an offer at a firm with published bands. A written competing offer from a peer restructuring or advisory firm is the only input that reliably gets a recruiter to go back to the practice leader for approval.

 

Getting to that competing offer means passing case interviews at the firms that use them, which is where most candidates lose their bargaining power before the negotiation even starts. If you want to learn case interviews quickly, my case interview course walks you through proven strategies in as little as 7 days.

 

Tip #3: Target the practice, not just the firm

 

A Corporate Finance seat and a Strategic Communications seat at the same title are not paid the same, because their bill rates and revenue models are not the same. Applying into the higher-rate practice is worth more than any concession you will win in a negotiation call.

 

Tip #4: Ask for the signing bonus when base is capped

 

The reported median signing bonus for Management Consultant roles is $15,000, and it comes out of a different budget than base pay. When a recruiter says base is fixed, this is the ask that still has room.

 

Tip #5: Negotiate the level before you negotiate the pay

 

Moving from Consultant to Senior Consultant is worth about $35,100 in total compensation, far more than any base adjustment within a single band. If you have relevant prior experience, make the level case during interviews rather than after the offer lands.

 

Your FTI Consulting salary is set far more by which practice you enter and which level you are placed at than by how hard you push in the final call, so put your effort into targeting Corporate Finance or Economic Consulting and building a case for the highest level your experience supports. Do that work before your FTI Consulting interview, not after the offer arrives.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How much does an FTI Consulting Consultant make?

 

Entry-level Consultants at FTI Consulting average about $96,900 in total compensation in the United States, made up of roughly $90,500 in base salary and a $6,400 annual bonus, according to Levels.fyi data updated in 2026. In the New York City area, the same level averages closer to $107,000. Offers vary by practice, with Corporate Finance and Economic Consulting typically at the higher end.

 

Does FTI Consulting pay well compared to other consulting firms?

 

FTI Consulting pays below the two restructuring specialists it competes with most directly. Its median reported total compensation of $118,300 sits under Alvarez and Marsal at $135,556 and well under AlixPartners at $221,603, based on Levels.fyi figures from 2026. Part of that gap reflects a more junior reported population at FTI rather than a like-for-like pay difference at the same level.

 

How much is the bonus at FTI Consulting?

 

Annual bonuses at FTI Consulting run about 7% of base salary at the Consultant level and rise to roughly 12% to 13% through Director and Senior Director. The big step comes at Managing Director, where the average reported bonus of $86,700 works out to about 31% of base pay. Bonuses are discretionary and tied to individual performance, utilization, and practice results.

 

Does FTI Consulting give signing bonuses?

 

Yes. The median reported signing bonus for Management Consultant roles at FTI Consulting is $15,000 on Levels.fyi, paid as a one-time amount separate from the recurring annual bonus. FTI also states in its 2025 annual report that it uses sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses, and forgivable loans to attract and keep senior professionals.

 

How much do FTI Consulting Managing Directors make?

 

Managing Directors at FTI Consulting average about $369,500 in total compensation in the United States, split between roughly $282,800 in base salary and an $86,700 bonus, per Levels.fyi. Glassdoor reports a lower figure of about $252,871 because its sample includes non-billable and support Managing Director titles. Senior Managing Director packages sit above this and are set through individual employment agreements.

 

How long does it take to get promoted at FTI Consulting?

 

FTI Consulting states that professionals should expect to spend two to three years at each of its six levels. Promotions are based on meeting the skill requirements of the next level rather than time served, so strong performers move faster. Reaching Managing Director from an entry-level Consultant seat generally takes 10 to 15 years.

 

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