PurposeHigh European standards of life quality are declared in a set of legislative documents in Ukraine, but the rewarding policy for the healthcare employees because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease remains not fully implemented. The purpose of the study is to develop indicators, standards and methods of assessing rewarding policies for healthcare employees in terms of providing decent labour remuneration that are useful for all stakeholders of the healthcare sector in Ukraine.Design/methodology/approachThe study proposes the methodical foundations of developing evaluation tools of rewarding policies for implementing the decent work concept at the sectoral level.FindingsThe findings identify the complex indicator of decent labour remuneration in the healthcare sector in Ukraine, which is 0.185. It proves that the level of the decent labour remuneration of the healthcare employees in Ukraine is at the low level.Practical implicationsThe study provides the important recommendations for all policymakers in the healthcare sector in different countries in the context of diagnosing the problems in the rewarding policies and determining the directions for improvement in terms of implementation of the decent work principles.Originality/valueBy proposing and calculating the main methodical foundations of evaluation tools development of rewarding policies in the context of realisation of the decent work concept at the sectoral level, the study fills a void in the decent labour remuneration and the labour economics theory literature.