Salary.com and WorldatWork Launch the Total Comp Tour, a 26-City Event Series Bringing Compensation Professionals Together Across the U.S.
The locally-hosted tour connects comp professionals in their own communities for peer networking, expert panels, and real-world conversations, kicking off May 6 in Waltham, MA at Salary.com headquarters.
Compensation is one of HR’s most consequential and most solitary disciplines. Comp professionals are often individual contributors or small teams, navigating complex decisions around pay equity, merit cycles, and AI-driven change with little opportunity to collaborate and brainstorm outside of their own immediate team, given the confidentiality needed for compensation data management. At Salary.com, the conviction that people are at the center of every pay decision has driven the company to invest in the comp community not just as customers, but as a professional community worth building. By partnering with WorldatWork, the Total Comp Tour is the most tangible expression of that commitment, bringing together local WorldatWork affiliate communities with curated content, candid peer dialogue, and the kind of authentic connection that only happens in person.
“Comp can be a fairly solo profession,” said Sean Luitens, VP Strategy, Salary.com. “These professionals are often working by themselves or in teams of two, and they can’t exactly go talk about pay philosophy over lunch with colleagues outside of HR. What the Total Comp Tour does is give them a local home. People who are sharing the same pain in the same region and running into the same challenges. The content is a reason to show up, but the real value is the room itself.”
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Each stop on the tour is hosted in partnership with WorldatWork and one of its local affiliates, grounding events in the specific workforce realities of each market, from manufacturing hubs and regional retail centers to major metro areas navigating the frontlines of pay transparency legislation. Sessions are designed to be peer-led and low-pressure, with panels featuring local voices alongside national subject matter experts from Salary.com and WorldatWork.
“WorldatWork affiliates play a critical role in building strong, connected compensation communities,” said Courtney Chmielewski, Manager of Event Programming and Affiliate Engagement. “Partnering with Salary.com on the Total Comp Tour allows us to amplify that impact nationwide, delivering relevant conversations and real connections where practitioners live and work.”
Tour Topics Reflect the Industry’s Most Urgent Conversations
Session topics were selected based on what comp professionals are actively wrestling with in 2026, including:
AI and Total Rewards: Shaping Pay, Culture, and the Future of Work – A practical exploration of how AI is reshaping compensation, benefits, and workplace culture, with a focus on real-world applications and the ethical implications of AI in total rewards strategy.
The Great Debate: Are Merit Increases Still Effective? – A structured debate exploring whether merit increases continue to drive performance and retention, or whether budget constraints and inconsistent evaluation practices have eroded their impact.
Pay Equity and Transparency in the AI Era – A timely discussion on how companies are responding to evolving pay transparency legislation — including the EU Pay Transparency Directive — while leveraging AI to drive fairness, close gaps, and equip managers to have confident pay conversations.
Leveraging Analytics in HR and Compensation – A data-forward conversation on how people analytics is helping organizations uncover pay equity insights, sharpen market competitiveness, and move HR from reporting to real business strategy.
Tour Stops at a Glance
The Total Comp Tour runs May through August 2026, visiting 29 cities across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, and South. Stops include: Waltham, MA (May 6); Springfield, MA / Albany, NY area (May 11); New York / New Jersey (May 12); Philadelphia (May 12); Northern Virginia (May 13); Richmond, VA (May 14); Raleigh-Durham (May 19); Charlotte (May 20); Myrtle Beach (May 21); Atlanta (May 27); Nashville (June 1); Memphis (June 2); Dallas (June 3); Tulsa (June 4); Kansas City (June 9); Omaha (June 10); Des Moines (June 11); Minneapolis (June 12); Milwaukee (June 16); Detroit (June 17); Indianapolis (June 18); Louisville (June 23); Cincinnati (June 24); Columbus (June 25); Buffalo (June 26); and Chicago (August 11). A special national trivia stop at Buc-ee’s is scheduled for May 28. Events are locally hosted and open to compensation, total rewards, and HR professionals.
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