What is Total Compensation?
The full value of an offer - cash, bonus, equity, and benefits - not just the base salary.
Total Compensation: definition
Base salary is only part of what an employee earns. Total compensation adds variable cash (bonus, commission), equity (options or RSUs and their value), and benefits (health, retirement match, perks). Presenting and managing total comp gives a true picture of cost to the company and value to the employee - essential for fair, competitive offers and for understanding the real expense of the workforce.
- Base salary - fixed cash pay
- Variable cash - bonus, commission, incentives
- Equity - options or RSUs and their estimated value
- Benefits - health, retirement match, and other perks
How Fintra handles it
Fintra unifies total compensation because the pieces already live on one platform: payroll holds salary and bonus, the cap table holds equity and its ASC 718 value, and benefits costs post to the ledger. That means total-comp views, offer modeling, and true workforce cost are computed from real data - and equity expense reconciles to the books rather than sitting in a separate stock-comp spreadsheet.
Worked example
| Component | Annual value |
|---|---|
| Base salary | $140,000 |
| Target bonus (15%) | $21,000 |
| Equity (annualized grant value) | $40,000 |
| Benefits & retirement match | $18,000 |
| Total compensation | $219,000 |
Frequently asked questions
What is included in total compensation?
Base salary, variable cash (bonus, commission), the value of equity (options or RSUs), and benefits such as health coverage and retirement match. Together they represent the full cost to the company and value to the employee - well beyond the base salary figure.
Why present total compensation instead of just salary?
Because base salary understates both the employee’s reward and the company’s cost. Total comp gives candidates a fair view of an offer (especially the equity component) and gives finance the true, fully loaded cost of the workforce.
How do you value equity in total comp?
Typically by annualizing the grant’s value - for RSUs, shares times fair value over the vesting period; for options, an estimated value like the ASC 718 fair value. Fintra pulls this directly from the cap table so the number is grounded, not guessed.
How does Fintra unify total compensation?
Because payroll (salary, bonus), equity (the cap table and ASC 718 value), and benefits (ledger costs) share one platform, Fintra computes total comp and true workforce cost from live data, with equity expense reconciling to the books.
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