2026 Compensation Survey

Private Credit compensation has remained a robust career path for junior professionals. We found that compensation in Private Credit dramatically increases at the Senior Associate and beyond level, with US Senior Associates making $308k/year, while NYC based Senior Associates make an average of $345k/year, but with 75th percentile comp of $386k+/year. Compensation dramatically increases after 7-12 years of experience, with folks making $500k-$850k/year.

Private Equity Associate compensation decreased y/y vs. last year's dataset due to increased participation from lower-compensated professionals and industry headwinds. Our data found that the trend of PE hiring right out of school is growing dramatically, and these greener analysts are generally making <$200k for 65-70+ hour weeks. Top PE Associates are making $300k+. Naturally, LMM PE is the lowest paid segment of Private Equity, with compensation dramatically rising for folks based in NYC. We found that mid-level PE professionals have a quick path to $500k-$750k of total compensation. To view more information on deferred compensation and carried interest, please view our Industry Analytics Add-On.

Buyside Hub's Investment Banking userbase has grown dramatically over the past year, leading to what we believe to be the best and strongest IB comp datapoints on the street. Our IB Comp Table lays out a straight forward path towards increased compensation if you climb the ladder. However, many of our participants are working an average of 80 hours per week.

We generally found that the bulk of junior buyside public credit professionals are earning ~$270k-$300k/year. We've found that mid-level professionals are making a healthy living with ~$315k-$500k in total compensation.

See attached our compensation analysis for Hedge Fund professionals. We have participants from Analyst to PM, from big funds to the more shrouded funds, who participate across the Buyside Hub platform.

Many individuals across the platform identify within the Asset Management category. Please note, some more senior professionals are considered Senior Analysts. Overall, these Buyside roles are relatively lower stress and lower hours, and as a result come with lower, but more stable compensation levels.

See below compensation data for sell side equity research professionals. While on average the hours can be manageable, please note that their hours flex significantly higher during earnings season.

Please see compensation data for your sell side sales desk below.

Please see compensation data for sell side traders attached. Once junior folks are onboarded, we tend to see their compensation levels start to rise dramatically.