Deloitte cut its UK partners’ pay packets by £48,000 in the last financial year as it sought to promote more people to its senior ranks.
The “big four” firm said average partner pay was down to £1.012m for the year to the end of May, compared with £1.060m in 2023. It said this reflected the fact it had been increasing its number of people in senior posts, with 80 of its employees promoted to partner over the past 12 months.
Richard Houston, a senior partner at Deloitte UK, said the firm had been investing in making more people partners as “the UK economic outlook has been improving in the last 12 months”.
He added: “A recovering economy, alongside the Government’s commitment to work with business in tackling economic and technological challenges, offers the prospect of stronger growth to come.”
However, it follows a mixed performance for various Deloitte divisions over the past financial year, as the professional services sector battles a slowdown.
Across its consulting arm, which is its largest division, revenues were down by 1pc to £1.58bn which bosses said was owing to “more cautious investment in services in light of economic conditions”.
Revenues were also down in its financial advisory business as deal-making slowed.
However, total revenues were up by 2pc to £5.7bn, as Deloitte’s tax, legal and auditing units performed more strongly. Overall profits remained flat in 2024 at £756m.
The UK results come weeks after Deloitte released its global figures, where it warned weak demand in the Americas and Asia had led to revenue growth falling to its lowest level since 2010.
It echoes similar signs of pressure at the other big four firms – PwC, KPMG and EY. All four firms have been cutting costs in recent years amid a slowdown in client demand.
Last week, PwC announced it had cut pay packets for its UK partners by £44,000. It had previously warned staff that “challenging market conditions” would hit their bonuses.
As well as tough economic conditions, the consulting firms have been grappling with their workers flouting work-from-home rules after years of flexible arrangements. In 2022, Deloitte introduced a policy that allowed its UK employees to work abroad 20 days a year. It allowed those staff to choose how often they were in the office each week.
However, The Telegraph revealed earlier this month that Deloitte was monitoring the location of UK employees logging in abroad, with the company notified when its data was accessed from remote places outside the UK.
Sources suggested the IP addresses were analysed only for security purposes to make sure staff were not breaching any overseas tax, regulatory or client obligations.
Deloitte declined to comment.
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