(2022) KPMG Salary Guide — Pay Levels, Bonuses, Commission, and Benefits

It’s well known that working at one of the “Big 4” consulting firms pays well. But what can you expect to get paid at KPMG? We discuss that and more in this article

7 min readNov 8, 2022

Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG) is one of the world’s leading tax, audit and consulting firms, with a global staff of over 219,000 employees.

Each year, more than 30,000 people apply for a position at KPMG. And who can blame them? The firm is one of the Big 4 in consulting, along with:

Deloitte
Ernst & Young (EY)
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

According to Statista, KPMG generated 32.13 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2021. But is their revenue per employee ratio just as impressive?

In this post, we’ll cover all the key information you need to know before applying for a job at KPMG, including:

Career categories and levels
Salary structures (all data is taken from glassdoor.com)
Bonus packages

KPMG Salary Guide: How Much Do KPMG Employees Make?

Careers at KPMG are split into 3 main categories:

Advisory
Audit
Tax

The Advisory category is made up of 6 levels, based on experience. These levels are (from junior to most senior):

Analyst
Consultant
Senior Consultant
Manager
Senior Manager
Partner

The Audit and Tax categories, however, share the same hierarchy, which is split into 3 levels:

Associate
Senior Associate
Manager

KPMG also offers a paid internship program that lasts between 3 to 6 months and that, on average, pays $4,965/mo.

The internship monthly salary encompasses a Base Pay of $4,641/mo and a Bonus of $324/mo.

Once the intern successfully completes the program, they usually receive an offer for a permanent position at the firm.

Advisory Department Salaries

KPMG Advisory department focuses on helping businesses boost their performance, make better use of their IT investments, manage risk, shield financial assets, and improve market confidence.

Employees in the Advisory services department can expect a salary ranging between $84K and $282K per year, depending on their level.

Advisory Analyst Salary

The average salary for an Advisory Analyst is $84,091 and it comprises of:

Base Pay: $79,361/yr
Performance Bonus: $4,729/yr

Advisory Consultant Salary

KPMG Advisory consultants have the same salary structure as analysts, but can also benefit from commission on top of base pay and bonus. The average total salary is $112,879:

Base Pay: $89,861/yr
Performance Bonus: $5,869/yr
Commission: $17,148/yr

Advisory Senior Consultant Salary

Advisory Senior Consultants are paid around $144,446/yr. Here is a breakdown of their average salary:

Base Pay: $110,989/yr
Performance Bonus: $8,498/yr
Commission: $24,959/yr

Advisory Manager Salary

Advisory Managers earn an average salary of $149,842/yr, broken down into base pay, bonus, and stock:

Base Pay: $126,733/yr
Performance Bonus: $10,860/yr
Stock: $12,249/yr

Advisory Senior Manager Salary

Advisory Senior Managers’ average salary is $168,017/yr. Their salary follows the same structure as the Advisory Managers’, but it also includes tips:

Base Pay: $139,787/yr
Performance Bonus: $11,630/yr
Stock: $12,844/yr
Tips: $3,755/yr

Advisory Partner Salary

Advisory Partners earn an average salary of $282,717/yr, which includes several benefits:

Base Pay: $169,670/yr
Performance Bonus: $25,026/yr
Commission: $42,608/yr
Stock: $30,429/yr
Profit Sharing: $14,983/yr

Audit Department Salaries

KPMG Audit department assists clients in conducting effective financial audits and evaluating their current technology. Those working in the Audit department will receive an average yearly salary of $69K to $133K, depending on their level.

Audit Associate Salary

Audit Associates can expect to make around $69,732/yr. Here is a breakdown of their average salary:

Base Pay: $66,822/yr
Performance Bonus: $2,910/yr

Audit Senior Associate Salary

Audit Senior Associates can receive an average salary of $93,291/yr, which includes:

Base Pay: $88,712/yr
Performance Bonus: $4,578/yr

KPMG Audit Manager Salary Structure

The median salary for KPMG Audit Managers is $133,858/yr:

Base Pay: $126,272/yr
Performance Bonus: $7,586/yr

Tax Department Salaries

KPMG Tax department offers tax consulting for individuals, organizations, trusts, and partnerships.

The average annual salary seen in the Tax department is $69K to $111K.

Tax Associate Salary

Tax Associates working at KPMG will earn around $69,100/yr. Here is the salary breakdown:

Base Pay: $65,887/yr
Performance Bonus: $3,213/yr

Tax Senior Associate Salary

KPMG Tax Senior associates will benefit from an average annual salary of $86,114/yr:

Base Pay: $82,156/yr
Performance Bonus: $3,958/yr

Tax Manager Salary

Tax Managers can expect an average salary of $111,896/yr. The annual salary comprises:

Base Pay: $105,386/yr
Performance Bonus: $6,510/yr

Other Roles

With over 219,000 employees worldwide, KPMG has several other departments and roles available. Below are the 3 other popular categories that come after audit, tax, and advisory:

Business Support Services
Federal
Innovation & Technology

Here are the average US salaries for the most popular roles at KPMG (according to Indeed)

Comparably has digged even deeper by creating the table below, which shows the average salary seen across 14 different KPMG departments:

At KPMG, the Director of Sales benefits from the highest yearly salary at $234,010/yr. While the Receptionist role earns the lowest salary at $39,346/yr.

249 KPMG employees were surveyed to see how they felt about their salary. The result showed that KPMG was ranked at the Bottom 35% when compared to businesses of the same size.

Benefits Package

KPMG offers an excellent benefits package which includes:

Medical insurance, prescription drug coverage, dependent day care flexible spending accounts, and health care flexible spending accounts
Dental plan for preventive, diagnostic, restorative, and orthodontic care
Vision plan covering eye tests, contact lenses, and eyeglasses
Accidental Death & Dismemberment Coverage, Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, and Family Term Life Insurance
Additional business, pet, automotive, or personal accident/personal cancer insurance
Money-saving perks, including student loan refinancing, homeowners insurance, and mortgage assistance
Health support tools, such as health coaches
Family resources, such as backup child and elder care
Paid time off, including medical leave, jury duty, and volunteering
Flexible work arrangement
401(k) Capital Accumulation Plan
Special discounts on selected vehicles, retail, recreation, well being, and electronics
Financial perks, such as signing bonus, stock options, and yearly bonuses

Out of 145 reviewers on Indeed, all of them rated benefits such as insurance, flexibility at work, childcare, health and wellness, and retirement 100% positively.

Financial perks received 89% positive reviews, while paid time off received 95% positive reviews.

Health, dental and life insurance at KPMG

Salary Raises

At the beginning of 2022, KPMG US invested almost $160million in pay raises for around 30,000 employees. The pay increases were broken down as follows:

$5000 for directors, senior managers, senior directors, managing directors, and executive directors
$7000 for managers, associate directors, and senior associates
$3000 for associates
$2000 for some of the other roles, including tax technicians, leads, and analysts

Work Life Balance

KPMG employees gave their work-life balance a 3.1 on Glassdoor. According to Comparably, only 31% of KPMG employees are happy with their work life balance. This is possibly due to the fact that most KPMG employees work long hours:

Only 7% of employees work 7 hours or less
25% of employees work 8 hours a day
41% of employees work 10 hours a day
15% of KPMG employees work 12 hours a day

Culture and Values

KPMG believes in the following values:

Integrity: Doing the right thing
Excellence: Learning and improving every day
Courage: Always making brave decisions
Together: Respect is the core of their strength
For Better: They do what is truly important

Furthermore, they believe in the importance of honest communication, collaboration, trust, diversity, and flexibility.

These values help their employees grow both as individuals and professionals.

FAQ

1. How long does it take to get promoted at KPMG?

On average, a promotion is granted to consultants, senior consultants, and analysts after two to three years in their role. Managers and senior managers can expect to fulfill their role for at least four to five years before reaching the Partner level.

2. Can you negotiate your salary at KPMG?

Yes, you can negotiate your salary offer at KPMG as long as you have the relevant experience and qualifications. For example, you could use previous similar experiences to advance a level or ask KPMG to match an offer made to you by another firm.

What Big 4 Firm pays the most?

Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC offer more or less identical compensation. Each Big 4 pays close attention to what the other firms offer, meaning that if you receive an offer from Deloitte, you may be able to easily negotiate a better salary with KPMG. Salaries for all Big 4 firms vary based on location, level, and practice.

Conclusion

Working in consulting requires dealing with facts and data on a daily basis, making it difficult to maintain a consistent level of energy 5 days a week. The hours are long, but the pay is great.

If instead you are more interested in having a better work-life balance, at 4 Day Week, we are here to help. We only list jobs with a 4 day work week (usually 32hrs) and most companies offer this with no reduction in salary.

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