Rewards Benchmark 2026: How Employees Rate Rewards at Work

Rewards scores 7.14 out of 10 in CultureMonkey's 2026 benchmark, 22nd of 22 engagement drivers, with a 0.38 correlation to eNPS (13th strongest of 22).

Based on ~394,000 survey answers.Q3 2026 dataLast updated: October 2026

Industries, regions and company sizes appear here only when they have at least 3 companies for Rewards, so this page can list fewer than the parent's segment tables. Industry rankings cover the 14 industries with a full driver breakdown.

SNAPSHOT

Rewards benchmark for 2026 at a glance

Score
7.14 / 10
Link to eNPS (r)
0.38
13th strongest of 22
Top quartile starts at
7.53

Lowest-scoring driver of all 22 (7.14).

The lowest-rated driver in 11 of 14 industries and in all 4 company sizes.

Of the industries with enough answers to report, Food and Beverage scores lowest on Rewards, at 6.62.

What a company has to score on Rewards to reach the top quartile

All companies today7.14
Top quartile starts at7.53
6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00
All-company scoreTop-quartile threshold
Two bars on one scale: where all companies sit today, and where the top quartile begins. The difference in bar length is what a company has to close to get there.
HIGHEST

Industries where employees rate Rewards highest

  • Finance employees rate Rewards joint highest, at 7.45 out of 10. That puts it 0.31 above the all-company Rewards score of 7.14.
  • Hospitality employees rate Rewards joint highest, at 7.45 out of 10. That puts it 0.31 above the all-company Rewards score of 7.14.

Industries that rate Rewards highest

Finance7.457.14
Hospitality7.457.14
6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00
This segmentAll companies 7.14
Each segment gets two bars on one scale: its own score on top and the all-company score underneath, so the comparison is simply which bar is longer and by how much. Only industries with enough answers to report are shown.

See employee engagement scores for every industry.

LOWEST

Industries where employees rate Rewards lowest

  • Food and Beverage employees rate Rewards lowest, at 6.62 out of 10. That puts it 0.52 below the all-company Rewards score of 7.14.
  • Retail employees rate Rewards second lowest, at 6.82 out of 10. That puts it 0.32 below the all-company Rewards score of 7.14.
  • Construction and Heavy Industry employees rate Rewards third lowest, at 6.95. That puts it 0.19 below the all-company Rewards score of 7.14.

Industries that rate Rewards lowest

Construction and Heavy Industry6.95
Retail6.82
Food and Beverage6.62
6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00
This segmentAll companies 7.14
Every reported segment is a dot on one shared scale, ordered highest to lowest, with the top and bottom emphasised. The upright line is the all-company score for this driver. Only industries with enough answers to report are shown.

The spread of Rewards across industries

6.62 Food and Beverage7.45 Finance and Hospitality
6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00
Reported rangeAll companies 7.14
Of the industries with enough answers to report, Rewards ranges from 6.62 in Food and Beverage to 7.45 in Finance and Hospitality, around an all-company score of 7.14.

See how all 22 drivers rank on score and on their link to eNPS.

BREAKDOWN

Rewards scores by region and company size

How Rewards varies by region

APAC7.27
Middle East and Africa7.09
Europe6.92
North America6.91
Latin America6.89
6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00
This segmentAll companies 7.14
All 5 regions, highest first. Each dot marks one segment's score on a shared scale. The upright line is the all-company score for this driver, so the further a dot sits from it, the further that segment is from the benchmark. Regions are ordered highest to lowest.

How Rewards changes as companies get bigger

6.947.157.267.07
Micro (under 100)SMB (100 to 499)Mid-Market (500 to 1,999)Enterprise (2,000+)
6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00
This segmentAll companies 7.14
All 4 company sizes, smallest first. Each column is one segment's score. The dashed line is the all-company score for this driver, so a column above the line scores higher than the benchmark and one below it scores lower. Company sizes run from the smallest headcount band to the largest.

See employee engagement by region and by company size.

Next in the ranking: Recognition ranks just above Rewards.

Related drivers: Recognition.

QUESTIONS

Common questions about the Rewards benchmark

What is a good rewards score?

A Rewards score of 7.53 or higher puts a company in the top quartile of CultureMonkey's 2026 benchmark. The all-company Rewards score is 7.14 out of 10, 22nd of 22 drivers.

Which industries score highest and lowest on rewards?

Of the industries with enough answers to report, Finance and Hospitality score joint highest on Rewards (7.45), and Food and Beverage scores lowest at 6.62.

How strongly do rewards affect eNPS?

Rewards has a 0.38 correlation with eNPS, 13th strongest of the 22 drivers and a moderate link on CultureMonkey's scale (0.35 or more is moderate). It measures how closely the two move together across benchmark segments and does not prove that one causes the other.

What does the rewards driver measure in an employee engagement survey?

How fair pay and benefits feel for the work being done. That is how CultureMonkey defines Rewards, one of 22 engagement drivers scored from 0 to 10.

How does the rewards score differ between regions?

Across all 5 regions, APAC scores highest on Rewards at 7.27 and Latin America lowest at 6.89.

How does the rewards score differ by company size?

Mid-market companies (500 to 1,999 employees) score highest on Rewards at 7.26, and micro companies (under 100 employees) lowest at 6.94.

How does the rewards score compare with other engagement drivers?

Rewards ranks 22nd of 22 engagement drivers on score at 7.14, below Recognition (7.63). On its link to eNPS it ranks 13th of 22.

What is the average rewards score?

Across CultureMonkey's 2026 benchmark, the average Rewards score is 7.14 out of 10, based on ~394,000 survey answers. It is the mean of company-level Rewards scores.

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Understand how fair your pay and benefits actually feel

Rewards scores 7.14 out of 10 across all companies, 22nd of 22 on score. Compare your own Rewards score against the CultureMonkey Employee Engagement Benchmarks, built on Q3 2026 data, then turn the gaps into an action plan your managers can run.

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