Welcome to our 2025 North America Private Equity Compensation Survey. This report provides a comprehensive picture of the compensation that North American private equity executives are currently receiving.

For this report, Heidrick & Struggles compiled compensation data from a survey of 656 investment professionals in North America. 

We hope you enjoy reading the survey, which remains the only one of its kind. As always, suggestions are welcome, so please feel free to contact us—or your Heidrick & Struggles representative—with questions and comments.

Executive summary

The market for private equity professionals—already highly selective—is becoming even more competitive, despite deal activity slowing down. 

Firms are looking for highly qualified candidates with recent, relevant closed-deal experience who can grow what is usually a small operation. Candidates are looking for growth as well, especially opportunities with room for a win and a good firm culture. Candidates are paying particular attention to how deployed the firm’s most current fund is, its distributions to paid-in capital (DPI), its deal track record, and its fundraising track record. This translates to a market where top-tier candidates enjoy abundant opportunities, while those lower on the ladder see little to no movement.

Hiring activity for private equity professionals continues to be driven predominantly by firms that have recently raised capital or that plan to raise capital. We are also seeing activity from new strategies within existing firms and firms upgrading their teams.

The pace of the hiring market has been uneven. This year started out as busy as we have seen it in recent memory, then slowed, and then picked up with a vengeance in the beginning of September and has not abated. We are seeing activity at all levels—VP to managing partner. 

We have seen growth in areas apart from firms raising larger funds. Private Equity started to become institutionalized in the 1980s. Very few firms have planned for or resolved their succession issues. As a result, we have seen an increase in activity from investment professionals who have left to start their own funds. 

We have also seen an increase in hiring into certain areas that were traditionally seen as solely residing in the LP’s domain (secondaries, CVs, GP stakes, mid-hold, etc.). We have also seen an increasing interest from our clients in recruiting GPs into these roles. GPs, in turn, have also begun to flock to this space, given its growth. 

Compensation trends

Survey results show that compensation for private equity professionals has continued to rise year-over-year, with base salaries and bonuses trending upward across most roles. However, for 2025, half of respondents said their base compensation increase was 10% or less, and three-quarters reported that bonuses remained discretionary rather than formulaic.

These compensation increases were evident across all firm sizes, particularly for associates, vice presidents, principals, and directors. Base pay rose steadily from 2023 through 2025, while compensation for managing partners showed more volatility. A similar pattern emerged in bonus payouts.

Total cash compensation in the upper quartile also tended to scale with assets under management (AUM) in 2024, highlighting a correlation between firm size and pay at the top end of the spectrum.

While the upper quartile of male associates and analysts earned more total cash compensation in 2024 than female associates and analysts, women in more senior roles tended to outperform their male counterparts.

For full compensation data, download the full report.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Mohd Arsalan for his contributions to this report.

About the authors

Jonathan Goldstein (jgoldstein@heidrick.com) is the regional managing partner of the Private Equity Practice in the Americas; he is based in the New York office.

John Rubinetti (jrubinetti@heidrick.com) is a member of the global Private Equity Practice; he is based in the New York and Miami offices.