John - thanks for the observations and let me answer your points so you can get as much from the report as possible.i) the graphs are distribution graphs, so they allow you to see what the salary distributions were for those that were say in the top 10% of earners in each grade. We provided figures for the top 20% in each rank, the bottom 20% and the middle 60% - but for some ranks (especially Partners!) the range of earnings in the top 20% is extreme indeed, so this graphical representation allows you to see exactly how the salary responses were distributed. It also means you can plot your own salary and say "OK I'm paid in the top 24% of all salaries paid to consultants at my level"ii) on the bonuses question, the issue was that for some grades there were sizeable proportions of that grade that received no bonus this year. So if you look at the Junior Consultants rank, 45% of respondents received no bonus. We wanted to distinguish between what was the average bonus that all consultants got at this level (with the average dragged down considerably by the 45% who got a zero bonus) and the average bonus of just those consultants that received a bonus - in the case of the Junior Consultants, the average of the bonuses paid to just the 55% of respondents who did get a bonus.iii) we didn't include employer details for each level because we didn't feel it would add a great deal to the findings. Either you have to show figures company by company; or you show an average for the industry. There are not enough data points to show reliable figures per firm (and certainly we would incur the wrath of the firms if we published this highly sensitive info!!). I think it would be fair to say that our readership - and the responses to this survey - are a good subset of the consulting industry itself. We've got many times more readers & respondents from the full service global firms like Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, etc. than we have readers & respondents from Bain or BCG. So the results are more representative of what these global brands would pay than what the top strategy firms might stretch to. But then of course different parts of Accenture will pay much more than other parts of Accenture - again making the value of a company segmentation of limited value unless you break down by practice area as well (not enough data).Hope that helps anyway - and that the first two points help you to understand the findings as we intended them to be understood.Tony
