Fiscal year
Also called FY, compensation year.
The company reporting year attached to each SCT row. Prior-year figures on CompensationBase come from the three-year table in the latest filing, not from older proxies.
What it is
A fiscal year is the twelve-month reporting period the company uses for financial statements and for the SCT. For many S&P 500 issuers it is the calendar year. For others it ends in January, June, or another month. SCT rows are labeled with that fiscal year, not with the date the proxy was filed.
A proxy filed in April 2026 often reports fiscal 2025 pay. Comparing “2025 CEO pay” across companies therefore mixes calendar and off-calendar issuers unless you read the fiscal-year label.
Why companies use it
Companies pick a fiscal year that matches their operating cycle (retail after the holidays, for example). Pay tables follow the same year so they line up with revenue, profit, and the 10-K.
Item 402 ties SCT years to completed fiscal years, not to the meeting date.
Pros
- Keeps compensation aligned with the audited financial year.
- Lets a profile show “FY 2025” even when the filing date is 2026.
- Avoids mixing a stub period with a full year when the company is consistent.
Cons
- Cross-company “calendar 2025” lists are slightly out of phase.
- A change in fiscal year-end can create a short-year SCT that looks like a pay cut.
- Grant dates near year-end can fall into different SCT years at two companies with different year-ends.
Examples
Calendar vs retail year
A December 31 issuer’s FY 2025 SCT is calendar 2025. A company whose year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31 reports FY 2025 that is mostly 2024–early 2025. Both may appear in a “2025” ranking.
Filing date is not the pay year
CompensationBase also shows the filing date of the proxy. That date is provenance. The fiscal year on the row is the pay period.
On CompensationBase
Each row is labeled with the fiscal year from the SCT. Company pages also show the filing date of the proxy or fallback form that supplied the table.
Related terms
- Summary Compensation Table
The Item 402 table in a proxy statement that lists each named executive officer’s pay components and total for up to three fiscal years. CompensationBase extracts figures from this table.
- DEF 14A
The definitive proxy statement filed with the SEC before a shareholder meeting. It is CompensationBase’s primary source for the Summary Compensation Table.
- 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.