Compensation, Benefits, and Total Rewards: A Bird's-Eye (Re)View

Research on compensation and employee benefits has enjoyed a long and rich history. Energized by a new generation of scholars, changes in the broader workplace context, and developments in adjacent areas of inquiry, many classic theoretical tensions and research questions have begun to evolve in novel directions, and exciting new areas of research are developing. In addition, there have been numerous calls for more academic research on both compensation and benefits and for greater alignment of that research with the needs and interests of practice, including the tendency of many practitioners (and employees) to view pay and benefits holistically as a package. In this review we highlight selected recent research on key components of core total rewards—compensation plus retirement, health, and work-life benefits. Extrapolating from our review, we identify evolving themes and trends and advance several recommendations for future research and suggestions for practice.