Deloitte’s 2025 Global Payroll Benchmarking report

A snapshot of the Payroll Benchmarking survey

As the fifth payroll-focused survey conducted by Deloitte, our 2024 research focused exclusively on large, mega-enterprise companies (which composed only 9% of our previous survey). With insight into the complexity and scale of payroll operations at these companies, this year’s survey helps advance the existing knowledge base by providing detailed payroll cost and staffing benchmarking data at the sub-function level.

We gathered data from 15 global companies, each with 25,000 to 240,000 active employees, across several industries: Technology, financial services, media/entertainment, telecom, consumer, and life sciences and health care. Data points were captured across four categories:

Key takeaways and actionable findings

By providing peer, industry, and regional insights, the Global Payroll Benchmarking report offers a diverse, in-depth perspective on current payroll trends and practices in the following areas:

• Structural analysis: Gain access to detailed staffing and cost benchmarking data, focusing on payroll Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staffing ratios and industry comparisons.
• Operations and processes: Discover the latest trends in payroll frequency, off-cycle payments, and the utilization of third-party business process outsourcing (BPO) services.
• Technology integration: Learn about the most common reasons for pay code changes and the impact of new benefit offerings, tax laws, and compensation policies.
• Business outlook: Explore the growth rates and cost drivers that are shaping the future of payroll, including business expansions, regulatory changes, and headcount growth.

We hope that the data and insights shared in this report help payroll leaders with decision-making, assessing their own operations, and developing strategies for continued improvement.