“According to recruitment consultancy Odyssey Partners, private equity professionals will be paid anywhere between $275k to $1m, each, on average in 2024. And that’s not including carried interest, either.

There is, however, a lot of variation based on fund size and performance. A bottom quartile associate at a small fund (with less than $500m in assets under management, or AUM), for instance, will earn an average of $200k in salaries and bonuses in 2024, according to Odyssey. A top quartile associate at a mega-fund (with over $10bn in AUM) can earn over $400k.

The numbers are even more extreme for principals (equivalent to investment banking directors). A bottom quartile principal at a small fund can expect to earn $425k or so, according to Odyssey, while a top quartile principal at a mega-fund could earn $960k.

The averages alone are misleading, however. Although the median MD or Partner earns $9.4m in carry from an average deal, only 4% of them earn over $20m according to Odyssey; and while the median VP earns around $2.9m in carry from the average deal, around 2% or so of them earn over $10m.”