Company: AOS
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001193125-25-037641
Chunk: 73

Company: SMITH A O CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 73
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 total compensation of our chairman and chief executive officer was $7,666,172; and |

| • |     | based on this information, the ratio of the annual total compensation is estimated to be 153:1. |

We identified our median employee using a multi-step process that is permitted under the SEC rules. We first examined the annual cash compensation paid during 2024 to each individual who was employed by us or our subsidiaries on December 7, 2024, which we gathered from payroll data. Then, we excluded approximately 527 employees in India and approximately 14 employees in Bangladesh as allowed under the de minimis exception to the SEC rules. The total number of U.S. employees and non-U.S.employees were 5,498 and 7,214, respectively, before taking into account such exclusions and for purposes of calculating such exclusions. We annualized the total cash compensation paid to those employees who commenced work with us during 2024 and therefore did not work for us the entire calendar year. Using this annual cash compensation data, we identified 10 employees whose total cash compensation was closest to the median annual cash compensation, as we believed that our median employee was likely within such group since cash compensation reasonably reflects the total compensation for most of our employee population. We then examined the total compensation of each of the employees within such group, calculated the same way as we calculate total compensation for our named executive officers in the “Summary Compensation Table,” to select our median employee whose total compensation is disclosed above. The median employee is a Lead Equipment Engineer II at our Nanjing, China plant who in 2024 earned the U.S. dollar equivalent of $50,022, which is competitive pay for this position in China. 58 A. O. Smith Corporation

ADVISORY VOTE TO APPROVE COMPENSATION OF OUR NAMED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS As required by Section 14A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, we are asking our stockholders to vote, on a nonbinding advisory basis, on a resolution approving the compensation of our named executive officers, as disclosed pursuant to the executive compensation disclosure rules of the SEC, including the “Compensation Discussion and Analysis” section and the accompanying compensation tables and narrative discussion contained in this Proxy Statement. As we describe in detail in the “Compensation Discussion and Analysis” section and the accompanying compensation tables and narrative discussion contained in this Proxy Statement, we have designed our executive compensation programs to drive our long-term success and increase stockholder value.