KPMG UK Partners Brought Home More Money This Year

12,000 people at KPMG UK may have had their pay frozen and bonuses cut late last year but partners are doing OK according to this recent report from FT.

First of all, LOL:

The story:

Payouts for UK partners at KPMG climbed 4 per cent to an average of £746,000 (approx. $949k USD) last year despite a surge in fines for audit failures and a slowdown in growth at the Big Four firm.

The accounting and consulting firm reported a 9 per cent jump in revenues to £2.96bn during the year to September, compared with growth of 16 per cent in the previous 12 months.

Pre-tax profits fell nearly a fifth to £364mn, with the firm blaming higher staff costs. However, a cull in the firm’s senior ranks, which left the partnership at its lowest level in more than two decades, meant that average individual payouts rose.

Partner pay last year averaged out to £717,000 (approximately $912k USD) per. Compare that to the £906,000 ($1.2 million USD) at PwC and Deloitte partners taking home more than £1 million for the third year in a row.

According to KPMG UK’s most recent people report, the firm has 833 partners as of October 2023, up from 786 the year prior. Total people and partners (separated in the report because partners aren’t people) are at 18,126 individuals, up from 16,822 in 2022.

FT said in October the equity partnership is at new lows, falling twelve percent from 571 to 502 after 94 partners left the firm and just 25 new ones were brought in. The “salaried partner” role was introduced in 2021, touted by the firm as a way to offer “the firm’s future leaders additional routes into the partnership.” The route they should be taking is straight through the front door and over to a different firm, what a stupid consolation prize. But that’s why the numbers don’t match up, the firm is counting Diet Partners in its overall partner total.

KPMG UK partner pay climbs despite slowdown [Financial Times]

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