PhDs are not automatically paid less than MBAs simply because they lack a business degree.

Compensation is usually tied more closely to the role, level, office and recruiting channel than to whether your doctorate was in a business field.

Where differences can appear is entry level or prior-experience credit, especially across countries and specialist versus generalist roles.

Confirm the exact role and level you are being considered for before comparing compensation packages. For more detail, see the PhD skills for consulting guide.

What helped me most was getting advice from someone who had made the same PhD-to-consulting transition recently.

For what it's worth, Talk to people in the office you are targeting. Lifestyle can look very different project to project.

imo I came from research too and the biggest difference for me was pace, not difficulty.

I found the practical answer was usually less complicated than the version I had built up in my head.

For what it's worth, Talk to people in the office you are targeting. Lifestyle can look very different project to project. I learned that pretty quickly.