Compensation actually paid
Also called CAP, Item 402(v) compensation actually paid.
A Pay Versus Performance figure that adjusts SCT amounts for equity fair-value changes and pension. It is not the SCT Total CompensationBase ranks.
What it is
Compensation actually paid (CAP) is a figure from the Pay Versus Performance table under Item 402(v). It starts from SCT Total and then adjusts equity to year-end fair value, adds or subtracts changes in unvested and vested award values, and tweaks pension amounts. It is a mark-to-market construct for that fiscal year—not cash paid, not grant-date SCT Total, and not Form 4 proceeds.
CompensationBase does not ingest CAP. Rankings use SCT Total as filed. CAP exists so this glossary can say clearly that it is a different number.
Why companies use it
The SEC added CAP so investors could see pay moving with stock performance in the same table as total shareholder return. Companies compute it because the rule requires it, not because committees historically managed to that number.
Some issuers now discuss CAP in the CD&A when it makes a more flattering (or more volatile) story than SCT Total.
Pros
- Reflects this year’s stock-price move on outstanding awards, which grant-date SCT ignores.
- Can be negative in a down year, which SCT Totals almost never are.
- Standardized enough to compare CAP vs TSR in the required graph.
Cons
- Not “actually paid” in the colloquial sense; unvested awards still sit in the number.
- Easy to confuse with realized pay or SCT Total in AI summaries.
- Not on CompensationBase, so a ranking here will not match a CAP ranking elsewhere.
Examples
Down year
SCT Total $30 million (new grants). Stock falls 40%; unvested RSUs lose value. CAP might be $5 million or negative. Neither figure is the cash in the CEO’s bank.
Up year without a new grant
SCT Total looks quiet because LTI was front-loaded last year. CAP soars because last year’s unvested block marked up. A CAP-based “highest paid” list would rank that CEO high; CompensationBase would not.
On CompensationBase
CompensationBase does not ingest CAP. Rankings use SCT Total as filed, which is a different figure from Pay Versus Performance compensation actually paid.
Related terms
- Pay versus performance
The Item 402(v) proxy disclosure that compares compensation actually paid with company performance measures such as TSR. CompensationBase does not ingest this table.
- Total compensation
The headline pay figure CompensationBase ranks and displays: the Summary Compensation Table Total column as filed, not a recomputed sum of the component bars.
- Grant-date fair value
The accounting value of equity awards on the day they are granted, which is what the Summary Compensation Table reports for stock and option awards—not the value later realized when shares vest or are sold.