The 2025 “Getting the World Paid” industry survey conducted by PayrollOrg provides an inside look at the global payroll industry. The survey enables PayrollOrg to gauge industry trends in the rapidly evolving global payroll landscape.
In the months leading up to Global Payroll Week (GPW), 28 April–2 May, more than 500 global payroll professionals from around the globe shared their professional insights on several key areas of global payroll.
New for 2025, the "Getting the World Paid” Survey Results Report offers a comprehensive analysis of this year's findings. This detailed report highlights current challenges, emerging technologies, and the evolving role of global payroll professionals.
Whether you're looking to benchmark your practices or stay ahead of industry trends, this report is an essential resource.
Navigating the complexities of global payroll presents significant challenges, including varying compliance requirements and diverse tax laws across different countries.
When participants were asked to rank global payroll challenges in order of importance, 57% of respondents identified ensuring local compliance as their biggest challenge. The second biggest challenge was automating inbound data (from the HCM and other data sources), and the third was automating outbound data (into finance, data lakes).
“The 2025 survey reinforces what we’re hearing from global payroll teams—fragmentation is still a major blocker,” said Eynat Guez, CEO and Co-Founder at Papaya Global, one of this year’s GPW sponsors. “Managing fragmented payroll processes is incredibly complex, especially considering the last mile of it—cross border payments. Without unified and streamlined solutions for payroll and payments, organizations struggle to meet today’s standards for compliance, accuracy, and agility.”
Navigating the global payroll space involves tackling a maze of country-specific labor laws and tax regulations. When asked which countries posed the greatest challenges, payroll professionals ranked the United States, Canada, and France as the top three most difficult to pay employees in.
As organizations expand beyond borders, the need for a well-defined global payroll strategy becomes more critical. Yet, the 2025 survey reveals that many companies still lack a formalised approach.
When asked, “Do you have a formalised global payroll strategy?,” only 28% of respondents said their business has one in place, while 30% indicated they are currently developing a strategy, and 42% reported they have not started at all.
A key component of any global payroll strategy is the service delivery model used across regions. When asked, “What is your global payroll service delivery model?,” 37% of respondents reported using a hybrid approach—combining in-house processing with outsourced services. The second most common model, cited by 21%, was outsourcing payroll to in-country providers. In-house regional processing followed closely, selected by 19% of respondents.
“This year’s survey confirms exactly what we are all feeling in the increased complexity of the global market,” said Richard Limpkin, VP and General Manager of UKG One View at UKG, one of this year’s GPW sponsors. “Most organisations are still operating across multiple platforms and battling daily with the challenges of attaining compliance. Flexibility and agility matter more now than ever. Control and certainty in times of increased uncertainty are critical. Having singular vision, centralised oversight, and a full handle on complexity have become a business necessity, but one that now has a solution that puts it within reach.”
Technology continues to transform global payroll, with organizations increasingly adopting innovative tools to improve efficiency, accuracy, and strategic decision making. The top three technologies currently shaping global payroll operations are application programming interfaces (APIs), used by 44% of organizations to connect and streamline data; global payroll data analytics, adopted by 23% to gain insights and drive strategic decision making; and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, already in use by 21% of respondents.
Notably, 30% of organizations indicated plans to integrate AI into their payroll operations in the near future, signaling growing interest in AI’s potential to enhance compliance, automate processes, and deliver predictive insights.
Managing global payroll requires a unique blend of expertise, with responsibilities split between HR and finance, and finding qualified talent remains a major challenge for many organizations. The annual survey asked, “What department does your global payroll report into?” and responses were nearly evenly split, with 35% indicating HR and 33% indicating finance, highlighting how global payroll continues to straddle both people and financial functions.
When it comes to talent, organizations face significant challenges. Seventy-four percent of respondents said it is either difficult (29%) or location-dependent (45%) to find qualified professionals in global payroll. This talent gap highlights how challenging it can be to manage payroll in different countries and shows the increasing need for professionals who understand both local rules and the systems used to run payroll smoothly.
Tracking and measuring global payroll performance remains inconsistent, revealing opportunities for organizations to enhance oversight and optimize their payroll processes. The survey asked respondents “How do you track your global payroll performance against objectives?” Respondents provided a wide range of feedback that indicated there was significant room for improvement.
Surprisingly, 38% of organizations reported that they do not track payroll performance at all, suggesting a missed opportunity to monitor efficiency, accuracy, and compliance. Another 26% indicated they rely on spreadsheets, business intelligence (BI) tools, or manual reporting. Meanwhile, 25% of respondents said they use dashboards that provide key metrics at a global level.
In addition to the areas highlighted above, the survey analyzed several other areas of the global payroll profession and industry, payroll standardization, and accuracy. Visit PayrollOrg’s website to view the complete 2025 “Getting the World Paid” survey results.