What is Total Remuneration?

By Abhishek Kathpal | Updated 25 July, 2022

Throughout a working period (most notably a yearly period), employees have the potential to earn a lot in compensation and benefits. All these go on the company books in one form or another and are summed up together as the total remuneration.

What is Total Remuneration

Total Remuneration meaning and definition

Total remuneration is the total of an employee's compensation package. It typically includes wages, bonuses, overtime, commissions, pension plans, and other forms of compensation. Critically, remuneration is taxable and includes financial and non-financial compensation. Some examples of non-financial compensation are paid trips, health insurance, gym membership, etc.

What is included in Total Remuneration?

As stated earlier, total remuneration includes financial and non-financial compensation. Components of financial compensation are:

  1. Wages/salary

  2. Bonuses

  3. Incentives

  4. Commissions

  5. Stock options

  6. Pension plans, etc.

Components of non-financial compensation are:

  1. Time off/paid leave periods

  2. Training programs

  3. Life insurance

  4. Health insurance

  5. Official car

  6. Catered lunches

  7. Gym membership

  8. Retirement benefits

Benefits of Total Remuneration

  1. It makes a company more attractive to potential employees. Total remuneration incorporates compensation outside of the base wages/salary of employees. The implication and reality are that employees receive more in the long term than their originally negotiated package. This goes a long way to keeping helping attract candidates.

  2. It increases employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention rates. Outlining the total remuneration package brings more transparency to a company's compensation structure, thus increasing employee satisfaction. Satisfaction, in turn, encourages confidence and engagement, which subsequently helps companies retain their best workers.

  3. It communicates the value of employees. There is no easier way for employees to recognize their value to employers than their total remuneration. The range of benefits and the full value of their compensation package is easier to tell and compare to market rates.

About the Author

Abhishek Kathpal

Abhi is the co-founder at Longlist.io. Funded by US based OnDeck, Longlist is currently enabling 50+ businesses to increase their candidate and client reach outs, automating the workflow across stages.