PwC partners take pay cut as profits fall

The 1,036 UK partners at PwC received a share of profits averaging £862,000 for the year to the end of June, down from £906,000 in 2023, as Britain’s biggest auditor invested in the business.
Total revenue, which includes the UK, Middle East and Channel Island businesses, rose 9 per cent to £6.3 billion. However, profit before tax fell 8.5 per cent to £1.3 billion. Revenue growth in the UK was 3 per cent.
PwC’s thousands of consultants advise businesses on areas including taxes, mergers and acquisitions and technology.
Marco Amitrano, PwC’s new senior partner and former head of clients and markets, who was elected in April to replace Kevin Ellis after eight years in the job, said the firm had “achieved growth in a tough UK market while investing in the technology and skills that will help our clients evolve, improve how our people work, and shape the future”.
Core services, such as tax and audit, were particularly resilient, he said.
Audit revenues rose 10 per cent to £1.5 billion; tax work was up 4 per cent to almost £1.3 billion; and consulting increased 18 per cent to £2 billion, largely because of infrastructure projects across the Middle East, in contrast to a tougher market in the UK. Risk revenues fell 1 per cent to £539 million.
Despite the global deals market remaining largely flat, revenue in PwC’s deals rose 5 per cent to more than £1 billion, “with clients wanting forward-looking support”.
Investments by PwC included more than £100 million in technology and “other strategic priorities”. In May the firm agreed a deal with OpenAI that makes PwC the largest user of ChatGPT Enterprise and its first reseller. The firm has also built a “tailored” GenAI platform for its staff.
Amitrano, who joined PwC as a graduate in 1992, said: “Different businesses will have different levers for growth — ours include expanding in-person collaboration, new skills training and more rapid adoption of technology.”
The industry enjoyed a post-pandemic boom in demand, especially consultancy work, but the Big Four suffered a drop-off in client spending against an uncertain economic outlook. It left some firms overstaffed and led to a wave of job cuts. PwC has cut more than 500 staff in recent months.
Staff costs across the group increased by 17.3 per cent to £3.3 billion, including employment termination costs of £69 million, up from £23 million a year earlier.
The overall average group workforce, though, rose to more than 36,000 from about 32,600.
PwC said it continued to invest in its regional sites, including opening a new office in Bradford.
Amitrano, who was selected by partners to lead the UK firm from an otherwise all-female shortlist, said: “While the UK’s economic trajectory won’t change overnight, there’s more optimism among the businesses we speak to than we’ve seen for some time.”
He added: “The professional services sector is one of the UK’s real success stories and will continue to be a driving force in the next era of growth.”