SCT Total as filed
Also called total as filed, headline total.
CompensationBase’s headline number: the Total column from the Summary Compensation Table, including amounts (such as change in pension value) that may not appear in the component bars.
What it is
SCT Total as filed is CompensationBase’s name for the Total column exactly as the company printed it. It is not a sum of the component bars we display, and it is not trimmed of pension changes, above-market deferred earnings, or other items that can be hard to show as their own series.
If the visible salary, equity, incentive, and other bars do not add to the headline, the gap is usually an unparsed or undisplayed SCT column still sitting in the Total.
Why companies use it
Issuers must present a Total. CompensationBase keeps that number so rankings match the filing rather than a reconstructed subset.
Using the filed total also avoids silently dropping columns that parsers cannot split cleanly.
Pros
- Matches the proxy a shareholder would add up.
- Prevents “fixing” pay by omitting pension or other columns.
- Gives every officer the same numerator for ranking.
Cons
- Readers may think the breakdown is complete when it is not.
- A large pension mark can make cash-and-equity mix percentages look smaller relative to the true total.
- If a company footnotes an unusual total, the column still stands unless the filing itself changes.
Examples
Pension gap
Salary $1.2 million, stock $8 million, bonus $2 million, other $0.4 million—visible bars $11.6 million—while SCT Total is $14 million because change in pension value was $2.4 million. Rankings use $14 million.
Why we do not re-sum
Re-summing only parsed columns would make two companies look more comparable on the site and less comparable to their own proxies. The product chooses the proxy.
On CompensationBase
The headline total is the Total column as filed, not a recomputed sum of the columns we display. That is why a breakdown can appear not to add up.
Related terms
- 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.
- Change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings
An SCT column CompensationBase does not parse as its own bar. The amount can still sit inside SCT Total as filed, so component bars may not add to the headline total.
- 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.