Company: CRL
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001104659-25-030908
Chunk: 45

Company: CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 45
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 compensation policies, the compensation of our Board of Directors, or our compensation policies as they relate to risk management. Charles River shareholders provided strong majority support for our named executives’ compensation at our 2024 annual meeting of shareholders (94.9% of shares voted in support of this matter). We attribute this level of support to several long-standing characteristics of our executive compensation program that we believe enhance the performance orientation of the program: • Base Salaries. We have kept base salary increases in line with market rates, averaging 3.1%, and in general annualized merit increases for our executives (excluding promotional increases) are consistent with the average annualized merit increases allotted to our North American workforce. • Annual Cash Incentive Awards. Our Compensation Program includes an annual cash bonus element that closely links a significant portion of executive pay to the achievement of short-term performance targets that are critical to meeting our stated financial objectives for the year. These targets are typically tied to specific financial metrics derived from our fiscal year operating plan. For fiscal year 2024, we did not meet our Revenue and Operating Income goals, which resulted in a bonus payout below target. This is discussed in more detail on pages 50- 51. • Long-Term Equity Incentive Awards, including Performance Share Units: Our officers typically receive three types of equity awards, and where appropriate and applicable, special equity awards (such as with respect to executive transitions): • Performance Share Units (PSUs), which vest on a “cliff basis” after three years, if service and performance requirements are met and which are paid out in shares based upon two separate performance metrics: (1) first fiscal year non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) and (2) three-year relative Total Shareholder Return (rTSR). PSUs are intended to comprise approximately 60% of the intended value of long-term equity incentive awards provided to executive officers in any fiscal year (with the exception of Mr. Foster, for whom the percentage is 80%). Because we did not meet the 2022 non-GAAP EPS goal or three-year rTSR goal, the PSU payout was below target for the performance period ending in fiscal year 2024, The design of our PSUs is discussed in more detail on pages 53- 54. • Time-based stock options, which vest over four years. Stock options are intended to comprise approximately 20% of the intended value of long-term equity incentive awards provided to officers in any fiscal year. • Time-based restricted stock/restricted stock