The 10 private equity firms that pay the best

Finding a job in private equity is no easy task. One firm recently told us that it receives 250 applications for every available role. While there are several reasons for the industry’s popularity, compensation is surely the leading factor. PE firms pay extremely well, and compensation at the top of the market is only growing.

The rankings come from a new report from Wall Street Oasis, which asked employees how their compensation compared with similar jobs in private equity. The research doesn’t include specific pay totals, as different levels of seniority would muddle the numbers, but it does suggest who’s most content with what they take home.

As you can see in the chart below, the top payers are some of the biggest names in the industry. The list also closely mirrors our own research detailing the private equity firms everyone wants to work for. Pay and prestige appear to go hand-in-hand.

It comes as little surprise that Blackstone tops both sets of rankings. The firm is an industry giant that is only getting bigger. Blackstone just signed a seven-year lease to take over four additional floors at its Park Avenue tower. Stephen Schwarzman’s firm also inked the biggest PE buyout in 2018 with the $17 billion purchase of a unit of Thomson Reuters. Industry stalwarts Warburg Pincus, Bain Capital, Apollo Global and KKR round out the top five.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is the longevity of the companies on the list. Like with the ranking of the top-paying hedge funds, every private equity firm on the list has been in existence for a long period of time, including lesser-known Summit Partners, which was founded in Boston in 1984. There’s a reason they’ve all been around for years, and that’s the same reason they can afford to pay so well.

Who pays best in private equity?

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