Overtime compensation?

Question

Hi, I'd like to understand how consultants in MBB firms are generally compensated for overtime work. Would appreciate if you would share that with me, thanks.

Answer 1

It depends on the country and tax regime, but the genral answer is that there is no overtime compensation at MBB firms. At McKinsey, there was an exception in Germany until end of 2017, where consultants had a certain "overtime budget" they could draw upon. However this has been abandoned since beginning of 2018 since this practice constituted a legal risk for the Firm (regular salaries were adjusted accordingly).

Cheers, Sidi

Answer 2

Agree with all other experts - no consulting firms, including e.g. Big 4, will pay for overtime work. In fact, your hours are also not billable like they are at a law firm (where you literally charge every 15 minutes of time working to client). Rather, fees are agreed in advance so you basically bill clients by day, not by hour.

As I recall, the wording on my contract was: "the typical work week will consitute of 40 hours, Monday to Friday. However, based on business needs, you may, from time to time, be required to work additional hours". Hint: I have never worked a 40 hour week, so "from time to time" is just a formality.

Answer 3

hum, that's pretty simple.
There is no overtime. Your salary is much higher than industry and this imply delivering the work asked in respect of the deadline, no matter how many hours this will take.

There is tough some kind of indirect compensation that can occur :

- when travelling : 100% of your fees are charged to client, so you d'ont pay for food

- when working at your home office : if you work at night you usually order food at the office and don't pay for it, and yo ucan charge taxi to go back home..

Finally the bonus is no funciton of how many hours you work but of your performance.

Best

Benjamin

Answer 4

They are not, usually: you are paid to do a job, not by the hur or for 40 hour weeks - unless things have changed A LOT since I was there

Answer 5

Hi,

The short answer is no. That's why MBB salaries are in general higher compared to the industry. However, if you recalculate your income per hour, you will be surprised in a bad sense.

Best

Answer 6

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