EY partners net record £870,000 each as firm trims partnership and fee growth slows

EY partners will be paid a record £870,000 each this year after the Big Four accountancy firm reduced the size of its partnership. The Telegraph reported that annual average profit shares rose by £83,000, or around 10pc, from £787,000 last year.

EY's Partner Payouts And Microsoft AI Deal

The increase marks the sharpest rise in partner payouts in five years, even as EY's fee income grew by only 2pc to £3.86 billion. Average pay for employees increased at a lesser rate of 5.2pc. The surge follows a reduction in the size of EY's partnership amid a wider downturn in the consulting industry in recent years.

EY has dismissed around 30 partners this year. It has also moved some of its partners into salaried roles, meaning they would not have any share of firm-wide profits. The shake-up followed a slump in partner payouts in 2024 after EY over-hired during the pandemic.

Anna Anthony, EY's managing partner, said: "These are a solid set of results in a challenging market."

"We've continued to grow the business while making significant investments in talent and technology to support our future growth and deliver high quality and innovative services to our clients," she said.

The slow increase in fee revenue came as a slump in its consulting sales was offset by a boost to its tax and audit segments. EY has also invested heavily in AI, including by striking a $1 billion (£750m) deal with Microsoft to use its AI tools internally.

EY offers the smallest payouts to partners of any of the big four accountancy firms, with Deloitte paying its partners an average of more than £1.1m each in 2026. PwC paid its own partners record sums of £935,000 this year after making multiple rounds of layoffs.

EY's Global Scale And AI Platform

According to akta.pro company records, EY operates across more than 150 countries with 121,000 consulting professionals, and the global organization spans more than 400,000 people. The same records describe EY as a Big Four professional services firm providing audit, tax, consulting, strategy and transactions services, founded in 1989 and headquartered in New York.

The records also note that EY launched and scaled the EY.ai platform, a managed AI services offering combining EY's industry expertise with embedded AI capabilities including the EYQ AI platform.

EY's Earlier Consulting And Audit Moves

In October 2026, CityAM reported that EY's UK fee income rose 2% to £3.86 billion and partner pay increased to £870k despite a 3% drop in consulting revenue, with AI and data project sales up 46%. Het Financieele Dagblad reported the same month that EY's Netherlands revenue rose 5.4%, driven by continued government demand.

Also in October 2026, manager magazin reported that EY will audit BMW's financial statements starting in 2029, following its Wirecard-related ban, its second major DAX mandate after Allianz.

EY's Graduate Intake And Government Work

EY has separately reduced the size of its graduate scheme in recent years, from around 1,800 new recruits in 2023 to 1,600 in 2024. The big four firms have won more than £1.5 billion worth of government contracts this year, according to figures from Tussell, the highest amount since 2020. KPMG and EY won the largest single contract in 2026, a £450m award by the Cabinet Office to deliver AI training to civil servants.