Filing Basics

All Other Compensation

The Summary Compensation Table’s catch-all column for everything else.

All Other Compensation is the final named column of the Summary Compensation Table, capturing everything an executive received during the fiscal year that fits none of the table’s other columns: company retirement plan contributions, insurance premiums, personal use of corporate aircraft, security costs, tax reimbursements, and similar perquisites and personal benefits. The rules require the company to identify and quantify each component above a de minimis threshold in a footnote to the table, so the column total is normally broken into its parts directly beneath it. It is usually the smallest column by amount and the one that draws the most governance attention, because these are the benefits least tied to performance.

All Other Compensation is the final named column of the Summary Compensation Table, immediately before the Total. It captures everything an executive received during the fiscal year that does not belong in one of the table’s other columns: company contributions to retirement plans, premiums on life or supplemental insurance, personal use of corporate aircraft, security services, tax reimbursements, and other perquisites and personal benefits.

The column is not a black box. The rules require the company to identify and quantify each component above a de minimis threshold in a footnote, and to describe any item whose nature is not evident from its label. A reader who wants to know what produced the figure does not have to infer it: the footnote directly under the table sets out each component and its amount.

Retirement-related items are the largest category at many companies. Company contributions to a defined contribution plan, and above-market or preferential earnings credited on nonqualified deferred compensation, generally appear in this column rather than in the change in pension value column, which reports the actuarial change in defined benefit pension value rather than deferred compensation earnings.

Not everything a company pays for on an executive’s behalf is a perquisite. An item is treated as a personal benefit when it is not integrally related to the performance of the executive’s duties, and as a business expense when it is. The test turns on that determination rather than on the size of the item, which is why spending of the same kind can appear in one company’s column and not in another’s.

Tax reimbursements are the category that draws the sharpest attention. Where a company pays the tax an executive owes on a benefit, the payment of that tax is itself a benefit and is reported here, and the rules expect it to be identified as a tax reimbursement rather than folded into the item it relates to. Proxy advisers treat tax gross-ups on perquisites and change-in-control payments as a governance question in their own right, separate from the size of the underlying benefit.

All Other Compensation is usually the smallest column by amount and the one that attracts the most outside attention. Perquisites are the part of a pay package least connected to performance, and a personal benefit is simple to describe in a way a grant-date fair value is not. Criticism of a pay program frequently begins with this column rather than with the equity figures that dominate the total.

Two distinctions are worth holding on to. The column is not a residual that companies fill as they choose: it is defined by rule, and it is a required element of the row’s total. And it is not interchangeable with the Bonus column or the incentive column — what it reports is benefits and reimbursements, not amounts earned against a target.

The column then carries into the other pay figures the proxy presents. It is part of the Summary Compensation Table total for the year, it is carried into Compensation Actually Paid without adjustment, and it forms part of the total compensation used when a company identifies its median employee for the pay ratio disclosure.

How it works

Each benefit is valued for the year
The company determines the value of every perquisite, benefit and reimbursement provided to each named executive officer during the fiscal year, using the measure the rules require for that kind of item.
Items are classified
Each item is sorted into one of the table’s named columns or into all other compensation, with spending integrally related to the executive’s duties treated as a business expense rather than a personal benefit.
Components are itemized in a footnote
Each component above the de minimis threshold is identified and quantified in a footnote below the table, and tax reimbursements are labeled as such.
The components are summed into the column
The table prints a single figure for the column, and the row’s Total includes it along with every other column.
The rationale may be discussed alongside
Where a benefit is a material part of the pay program, the Compensation Discussion and Analysis may explain why the company offers it and how the committee treats it.

In practice

The catch-all column of a Summary Compensation Table, beside the columns it sits with.

All other compensation column The items the table’s other named columns do not cover, itemized in the footnotes.	$1,759,518
Salary column The fixed cash component for the year.	$3,000,000
Non-equity incentive column Cash earned against pre-set performance goals.	$12,000,000
Total compensation The figure the table reports as the executive’s total for the year.	$74,294,811

The "All Other Compensation" column of Apple's fiscal 2025 Summary Compensation Table carries $1,759,518 for Tim Cook — everything the table's other named columns don't cover, itemized in the filing's footnotes.

See AAPL’s full page →

Where it appears

The "Summary Compensation Table": The final named column before the Total, with each component itemized in a footnote directly below the table.
The Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A): Any explanation of why particular benefits are provided and how the compensation committee regards them within the pay program.
The "Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control" section: Benefits and reimbursements that would be provided on a qualifying termination, which can include items of the same kind the table reports for the year.
The director compensation table: The board’s equivalent column for non-employee directors, where the same categories of benefit appear for a different group of people.

Perquisite vs. Business Expense

The line between the two determines whether an item an executive received is reported as compensation at all.

	Perquisite (personal benefit)	Business expense
Definition	A benefit provided for personal reasons and not integrally related to the executive’s duties	An item provided because the company requires it, or because it serves the company’s business purpose
Where it is reported	In the all other compensation column, itemized by type in a footnote	Generally not reported as compensation
Typical items	Personal travel on a corporate aircraft, club dues, financial planning, security not required by company policy	Security required under the company’s own policy, travel for company business, aircraft use tied to a business purpose
How the call is made	The company determines that the item is not integrally related to the executive’s duties	The company determines that the item is integrally related to the executive’s duties
Effect of size	Size affects whether the item must be itemized, not whether it counts as a perquisite	Size does not change the treatment

Common misreadings

The column is often read as an opaque residual, when the rules require each component above a de minimis threshold to be identified and quantified in a footnote to the table.
Perquisites are often read as a form of performance pay, when they are benefits provided for reasons other than performance and are reported here for exactly that reason.
A tax reimbursement is often read as part of the benefit it relates to rather than as a separate benefit of its own, which is the distinction the disclosure rules require companies to make explicit.

Frequently asked

What is all other compensation?

It is the Summary Compensation Table column that reports everything an executive received in the year that fits none of the table’s other columns, such as retirement plan contributions, insurance premiums, a personal benefit, or a tax reimbursement. The rules require each component above a de minimis threshold to be identified and quantified in a footnote to the table.

What kinds of items appear in this column?

The most common are company contributions to retirement plans, above-market earnings on nonqualified deferred compensation, premiums for life or supplemental insurance, personal use of company aircraft, security services, and reimbursements of taxes owed on benefits. The footnote beneath the table names and quantifies each component for the executive in question, so the composition is disclosed even though the column shows only a sum.

Does a large figure here mean pay is being hidden?

No. Each component above the de minimis threshold has to be identified and quantified in a footnote, so a large total is normally explained directly below the table rather than concealed. What does vary by company is how much narrative is offered about why a given benefit is provided.

Is a flight on the company aircraft always reported as a perquisite?

Not always. It depends on whether the company determines that the use is integrally related to the performance of the executive’s duties and serves its own business purpose. Spending of the same kind can therefore be reported in one company’s column and not in another’s. Where it is reported as a personal benefit, its value is itemized in the footnote. The detail companies provide varies.

Why is this column scrutinized more than larger ones?

Because these are the benefits least tied to performance and the easiest part of a pay package to describe in the abstract. Proxy advisers and shareholders attend to perquisites, and to tax reimbursements in particular, without much regard to how the column compares with salary or equity in size. That attention is a feature of the disclosure rather than a judgment about any one company.

Related terms