2026 State of Total Rewards Report

HR Advisory surveyed HR leaders and professionals across our 13,000-member community on how they structure pay, benefits, and recognition. The core benefits stack is nearly universal: 98.8% offer health, dental, and vision insurance. Yet 38% of organizations still don't communicate total rewards value in any structured way, and more than half say budget is holding them back.

What you'll find inside:

• The Total Rewards Communication Disconnect: HR leaders rate their rewards' impact on retaining top performers at 6.6/10, but their confidence that employees understand their package's value is just 5.4/10. See which communication channels teams rely on, and the single highest-ROI step the report identifies to drive employee understanding without adding new benefit costs.

• Why Budget Is the #1 Constraint: 51.4% cite budget constraints as their biggest total rewards challenge, and 76.3% saw healthcare costs increase over the last 12 months. Learn why the report recommends job leveling/banding (currently used by 52.2%) and structured market benchmarking to stay competitive, rather than trying to spend your way there.

• Where Pay Transparency Really Stands: There's no dominant transparency model. 32.2% share salary ranges only once a candidate is already in the hiring process, and just 15.5% make them publicly available. With pay transparency topping the list of planned investments over the next two years, see how your approach stacks up.

• The Biggest Equity Access Gap: 42.9% of organizations offer equity, but access varies widely by industry: 72.9% of technology companies offer it in some form, compared with 13.2% of nonprofit/government organizations. Plus, see which variable pay types are most common, from performance/annual bonuses (77.6%) to sales commissions (50.6%).

Also inside: benchmarks on how organizations set pay, PTO approaches, paid parental leave duration, recognition programs, and a four-step action plan for HR leaders.