Compensation Glossary

Total Compensation

The sum of all payments made to an employee for a specific time period (usually annual) including base salary, incentives, and bonuses (and/or other variable pay such as commissions).

In certain cases, as when non-cash remuneration elements are separately attributed to an individual, Total All Compensation may be provided (as in the Executive Compensation Assessor®) to include all cash and individually-paid benefits, as specified. Alternatively, when additional categories are reported (as in the field for Total Compensation in the Nonprofit Comparables Assessor®), Total Compensation is defined as the sum of direct cash, benefits, and allowances.