Benefits aren't the only area where BCG excels. According to survey respondents, BCG also lavishes the highest pay on its consultants, though the firm's score dropped by .1 of a point in the past year. ghSMART, a boutique that is heavily involved in the private equity and leadership succession space, now ranks nd in Compensation, with a .34 of a point improvement since the last Vault Consulting50 survey. That said, McKinsey has lost serious ground in the past two years, with its Compensation score falling from 9.5 to 8.951 during that time.