What it’s like to work at Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, and EY: pay, perks and RTO policies
The “Big Four” are the world’s largest accounting and consulting firms, with a combined 1.3 million employees worldwide.
Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG, and Ernst & Young (EY) are known for paying high salaries. However, all four have laid off staff over the past year in a bid to trim costs amid a challenging economic environment.
Here’s how the Big Four stack up when it comes to pay, perks, and return-to-office (RTO) policies.
DeloitteBusiness Insider analyzed disclosure data from the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification to work out how much each member of the Big Four pays its employees.
At Deloitte, salaries range from $49,219 a year for entry-level analysts to as much as $875,000 a year for senior principals. The firm’s US operation employs just over 170,000 people across 80 offices, with its headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York.
Employees are entitled to 16 weeks of paid parental leave, can take three or six-month sabbaticals at 40% of their base pay, and are eligible for a wellbeing subsidy worth up to $1,000.Deloitte doesn’t have a set RTO policy, although this may vary from team to team.David Rizzo, a talent strategy executive, offers his tips for landing a job at Deloitte.
PwCPricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) pays its entry-level associate roles a minimum of $68,000 a year — and its highest-paid principals earn nearly $1.4 million, according to the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification data.The firm’s headquarters are in London, but it has almost 50,000 employees in the US, spread across 79 offices.
PwC offers employees 12 weeks of paid parental leave and has a student loan paydown benefit plan that pays off up to $1,200 a year for associates and senior associates.The majority of US-based employees follow the firm’s hybrid model, which allows them to spend up to half their time working remotely. Rod Adams, talent acquisition and onboarding leader, offers his tips for landing a job at PwC.
KPMGAt KPMG, associates make at least $61,000 a year, while managing directors are paid up to $485,000.The firm says it’s the fastest-growing Big Four member in the US, with 40,000 employees and partners and some 75 offices. Its headquarters are in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, but it has an executive office on Park Avenue in New York City.
Like PwC, KPMG staff can take up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave. It also offers firm-wide nine-day breaks in July and December, which it believes encourages employees to book time off without worrying about catching up on work.
Most KPMG employees follow a hybrid working pattern, although a limited number are either fully remote or fully office-based. Here’s how to land a consulting job at KPMG, according to Sandy Torchia, the vice chair of talent and culture.
EYAccording to the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification data, EY entry-level accountants and auditors earn $54,000 a year and up. Managers earn an average of $320,000 a year, while computer and information systems managers can earn up to $600,000 a year.The firm’s headquarters are in London, but it employs more than 60,000 people across 131 locations in the US.
This week EY announced it would be laying off 3,000 of those workers due to “overcapacity” in certain divisions, Bloomberg reported.Like Deloitte, EY offers 16 weeks of paid parental leave and runs a wellbeing fund that reimburses most of its US-based employees for up to 75% of their gym membership costs.
The firm has hit headlines by launching a stricter return-to-office push than its competitors, including using “turnstile access data” to track workers’ movements in the UK.Ginnie Carlier, a head of talent for EY, reveals the qualities she looks for candidates and explains how to showcase them in interviews.
