Executive pay

What it is

A company's proxy statement includes a pay-versus-performance table. For each year it shows what the CEO was paid in total, the "compensation actually paid" under an SEC formula that follows the share price, the average for the other named executives, and the company's shareholder return. This feed lists those figures for each company's fiscal year, with the highest-paid CEOs first.

Who files it

The company, in its annual proxy statement (Form DEF 14A), tagged in structured data that the SEC publishes.

How current

Most proxy statements are filed between March and May, and companies with other fiscal years file through the rest of the year. We collect them every day.

Terms

CEO figuresThe principal executive officer: the person the company names as its chief executive for the year. A company that had two CEOs in one year is not shown with a CEO figure.total payTotal pay as reported in the Summary Compensation Table: salary, bonus, the grant-date value of stock and option awards, and other pay. It counts awards when they were granted, not what they were later worth.actually paidThe SEC's formula for compensation actually paid. It starts from total pay but counts stock awards at their value when they vested or at year-end, so it rises and falls with the share price and can be negative.other executivesThe named executive officers other than the CEO, usually the finance chief and the next three most highly paid officers. The figure is their average.

Worth knowing

Only companies that report a single CEO for the year show CEO figures: a company that changed CEOs, or tags each executive separately, shows a dash for the CEO and may still show its other executives. About 2,000 companies a year are covered. Compensation actually paid moves with the share price and can be far from total pay, or negative. A few filers tag thousands as dollars; amounts over $1 billion are marked so you can check the filing, and they are listed after the others when you sort by pay. Fiscal years are named by the date they end, and each company is shown for its most recent year unless you set dates or a ticker.

All of this comes from public filings.