What is incentive award (service award)?
An incentive award, also called a service award, is an extra payment a court may approve for named plaintiffs in a class settlement, on top of their regular class-member recovery, compensating them for the time, risk, and burden of representing the class — depositions, discovery, and case oversight. These awards require court approval as part of final settlement approval and are never automatic.
Federal courts have grown more skeptical of large incentive awards in recent years, with the Eleventh Circuit in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions (2020) holding they may be improper as a matter of law in some circumstances, prompting many settlements to reduce or restructure these payments and explain them more carefully. When approved, incentive awards are typically modest — commonly a few thousand dollars per named plaintiff — and are disclosed in the settlement notice so other class members can review or object to the amount.
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Last reviewed 2026-08-22.