The annual Compensation Best Practices Report (CBPR) from Payscale — now entering its 17th year — is the most comprehensive report on compensation management. The 2026 edition is targeting thousands of survey responses from compensation, total rewards, and HR professionals — anyone overseeing compensation within organizations is invited to participate.
The 2025 Compensation Best Practices Survey is open from October 1 to December 12, 2025. With just over 100 questions, the survey takes 30 min to an hour to complete. It covers standard compensation practices as well as hot-button topics such as the impact of the state of the labor market on compensation strategy, the effects of immigration policy, artificial intelligence for compensation management, and pay transparency compliance.
The survey incorporates skip logic and tracking, allowing participants to return any time before the survey closes to change their answers (use the same link and browser).
Sections of the survey for 2026 include:
- Firmographics
- Pay increases
- Compensation preparedness
- Labor market and economic conditions
- Salary data and market pricing
- Artificial intelligence
- Compensation strategy
- Pay equity and DEI
- Pay transparency and communications
- Variable pay and benefits
Hot topics change every year. Although some questions remain the same for year-over-year analysis, many have been changed to reflect topical issues in the HR space or to get more detailed information on a focus area that wasn’t covered in recent years.
Here are just a few examples of questions from this year’s survey:
- How well prepared is your organization to ensure compliance with compensation laws? (e.g., FLSA, California labor laws)
- How does your organization measure the ROI of compensation changes?
- How is your compensation team primarily structured?
- What was the average number of days required to fill an open position in your organization in 2025?
- Are employees “job hugging” in your organization?
- What is the biggest challenge your organization faces in managing compensation in the current economic landscape?
- What do you expect will be the average percent base-pay increase given to employees in your organization in 2026?
- Is your organization considering a standard, across-the-board pay increase in 2026?
- What are the most important characteristics for assessing the quality of a salary data source?
- How does your organization age survey data to align with your salary planning cycle?
- What compensation activities would you most want to automate if you could?
- What factors most influence your trust in an AI tool for compensation-related tasks such as salary benchmarking or aggregating and weighting data?
- Does your organization have a formal process for determining where employees fall in the pay band and how they progress up the pay band?
- To what extent are budget constraints limiting your organization's ability to ensure internal pay equity?
- How would you describe your organization’s readiness for compliance with the EU Pay Transparency Directive?
Those who complete the survey may also enter a drawing to win a $200 gift card. The report is free to download for everyone, but we encourage a high volume of participation to allow for segmentation of the data, particularly by industry.
Industry coverage for the 2026 CBPR will include:
- Agencies & Consultancies
- Arts, Entertainment, & Recreation
- Construction
- Education
- Energy & Utilities
- Engineering & Science
- Finance & Insurance
- Food, Beverage, & Hospitality
- Government
- Healthcare & Social Assistance
- Manufacturing
- Nonprofit
- Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology (new this year!)
- Real Estate, Rental, & Leasing
- Retail & Customer Service
- Technology
- Transportation & Warehousing
At the beginning of the new year, Payscale’s content and research team will analyze the survey results and prepare a report packed with data, charts, and analysis of findings. Whether you’re focused on compensation or broader HR practices, your input in this year’s survey will help shape the compensation strategies of 2026 and beyond.
Ready to participate?
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