Company scorecard

Best UK consulting firms for women in 2026

Published 1 September 2026, last reviewed 7 September 2026

Woman leading a workshop at a whiteboard covered in sticky notes while colleagues watch

Search for the best consulting firms for women and you get award badges, careers-page photography, and diversity statements that all read the same. Consulting is a sector where the marketing is polished and the published numbers are uncomfortable, so this guide works the other way round. It starts with the figures every large UK firm is legally required to publish, and builds out from there.

Nothing below is a ranking. Ranking consulting firms on one number would mislead you, because a wide gap in this sector usually reflects who holds the senior seats rather than men and women being paid differently for the same job. What follows is the published data from the most recent reporting round, the number that data quietly leaves out, and the checks that separate a firm doing the work from one describing it.

The consulting pay gap in 2026, in numbers

Consulting sits inside the Office for National Statistics category “business and other management consultancy activities”. In the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for April 2025, the most recent ONS data available, that category recorded a median gender pay gap of 23.0% across all employees and a mean of 19.5%. For full-time employees only, the median was 21.2%.

Hold those against the whole economy. The ONS put the median gap at 12.8% across all employees in April 2025, and 6.9% for full-time employees. Consulting is running at roughly double the national picture, and it is one of the widest gaps of any large UK sector.

The shape of the gap matters more than the size. Karrabina looked at every employer reporting under that consultancy category on the government’s gender pay gap service for the snapshot date of 5 April 2025, which is 105 firms. On average, women made up 51.7% of the lowest-paid quartile in those firms and 34.4% of the highest-paid quartile. Roughly half the junior population, roughly a third of the senior one. That single drop explains most of what the headline percentage is telling you.

What the big UK consulting firms actually published

Every UK employer with 250 or more staff must report six figures each year, and they sit free to search on the government service. These are the median and mean hourly pay gaps that large UK consulting and advisory employers reported for the 5 April 2025 snapshot, published in the year to April 2026. A positive number means men were paid more.

Read those as a spread, not a league table. The distance between the narrowest and the widest is more than 27 percentage points, inside one sector, in one year. That is the real finding: the sector average tells you almost nothing about the firm you are actually considering.

Direction of travel is more useful than any single year. Across the same service, Boston Consulting Group’s median gap fell from 24.7% at the 2023 snapshot to 22.2% in 2024 and 16.6% in 2025. Deloitte LLP fell from 13.0% to 12.1% to 10.4% over the same three snapshots. Accenture (UK) Limited moved the other way on the median, from 16.7% to 18.2% to 19.5%, while its mean gap edged down from 17.4% to 16.9%. Three years of data will tell you more about a firm than any award it has won.

One more thing the list shows. Big brands report through several legal entities and the figures can look completely different. PricewaterhouseCoopers Services Limited, which employs more than 20,000 people, reported a 1.4% median gap for 2025. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a much smaller entity, reported 27.2%. Both are PwC and both are accurate. Before you draw a conclusion, check which entity would actually employ you. Our guide to reading a company’s gender pay gap figures walks through the rest of the traps.

The number that is missing: partners

Here is the gap in the gap. The government’s own guidance on who needs to report says employers must not include partners in traditional partnerships or limited liability partnerships in their gender pay gap calculations, because partners take a share of profits rather than a salary.

In consulting and professional services, that is the entire top of the pay structure. Partner earnings, the biggest and most male-dominated numbers in the firm, are legally outside the figures you can search.

Some firms publish the fuller picture voluntarily, and those are worth seeking out. Deloitte UK reports what it calls a total earnings gap, which applies the same government methodology to employees and equity partners together. For April 2025 its statutory employee gap was 10.4% median and 11.9% mean, while its total earnings gap including equity partners was 10.8% median and 27.5% mean. The median barely moves, the mean more than doubles. That is what including the partnership does to a professional services firm.

A firm that volunteers this number is telling you it is willing to be measured on the part that matters. A firm that publishes only the statutory minimum is not lying, but it is showing you the flattering half of the picture.

What separates the best consulting firms for women

Once you have the numbers, the useful signals are specific and checkable.

Women across all four pay quartiles, not just the bottom two. Every reporting employer publishes the share of women in each quartile. Deloitte LLP had women at 42.8% of its top quartile in 2025 and EY at 41.0%. Capgemini UK plc was at 20.2% and Oliver Wyman at 21.6%. If you can only be senior somewhere as an exception, that is the ceiling you would be joining under. We look at why the pattern persists in women in leadership: why representation still lags.

A partner target with a public number attached. Deloitte UK reported 31% female partners in June 2025 and has set a target of 37% by 2030, revised down from a previous target of 40%. KPMG UK reports that its share of female partners has gone from 15% in 2015 to 29%, alongside a workforce that is 50% women. Published targets, including revised ones, are more informative than an aspiration with no figure behind it.

A bonus gap that gets discussed, not buried. Bonuses are where a large slice of consulting reward is decided, and the bonus gaps run far wider than the pay gaps. KPMG LLP reported a 36.9% median bonus gap for 2025 and Deloitte MCS 37.9%. Ask in interview how bonus is calibrated, whether the process is moderated across teams, and whether part-time colleagues are pro-rated fairly.

Family and returner support beyond the statutory floor. Deloitte UK’s family leave policy equalises paid leave at 26 weeks fully paid for all new parents, and it reports that more than 625 non-birthing parents applied for the extended leave in its first year. KPMG says it is piloting job sharing at senior grades. In a sector where progression is tied to visible availability, these policies decide whether the mid-career years are survivable.

Transparency about their own mistakes. KPMG notes on its published pay gap report that its April 2025 figures, first issued in January 2026, were restated in April 2026 after an error was found in the underlying data. Correcting yourself in public is a better sign than a report that has never needed a correction.

How to check a consulting firm before you apply

Look the exact legal entity up on gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk. Read the median and the mean together, because a firm where the mean is far larger than the median has a small group of very high earners who are mostly men. Check all three of the most recent years for a trend. Read the four pay quartiles, which are the honest part of the return. Then find the firm’s own report and see whether it publishes anything about partners at all.

Then compare within consulting, not against the economy. A 17% gap looks alarming next to the 12.8% national figure and reasonable next to a 23.0% sector median. Context is the whole job, which is what the Karrabina company gender scorecard is built to do, pulling published data, the multi-year trend, and a sector benchmark into one view. For the sector-level picture behind these firms, read our companion piece on whether the UK consulting industry is good for women, and for a neighbouring sector with a similar pattern, the best UK finance companies for women.

Frequently asked questions

Which UK consulting firm has the smallest gender pay gap?

Of the large advisory employers reporting for the 5 April 2025 snapshot, Ernst & Young LLP published the narrowest median hourly gap at 8.7%, followed by Deloitte LLP at 10.4%. Those figures exclude partners, as the regulations require, so they understate the full picture at every partnership. Always check the specific legal entity you would join.

Why is the consulting gender pay gap so wide?

Because women thin out through the senior grades. Firms often recruit close to an even split at graduate level, then the manager, director, and partner grades, which pay the most, stay heavily male. Across the 105 UK employers reporting under the management consultancy category for 2025, women averaged 51.7% of the lowest-paid quartile and 34.4% of the highest.

Are partners included in a consulting firm’s gender pay gap figures?

No. Government guidance is explicit that partners in traditional partnerships and LLP members must be excluded from the calculations, because they take a share of profits rather than a salary. Some firms publish a voluntary figure that includes partner earnings, and that number is usually considerably wider.

How can I compare consulting firms for women myself?

Search each firm on the free government service at gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk, note the median and mean, read all four pay quartiles, and look at the last three years rather than one. Then read the firm’s own pay report for partner representation, family policies, and whether it publishes anything it did not have to.

See how employers score for women on the Karrabina company gender scorecard.

This is educational information, not legal advice. Pay reporting rules, employment rights, and an employer’s obligations can vary by contract, role, and circumstance. For impartial guidance, contact ACAS, and look up any employer’s figures on the official gender pay gap service.

Last reviewed: September 2026

Ready to be seen for your full potential?
Join the Karrabina waitlist