Company: SOJE
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0000092122-25-000032
Chunk: 62

Company: SOUTHERN CO
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 62
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Our compensation system is designed to promote equitable compensation throughout the entirety of each employee’s tenure. To help ensure compensation is fair and consistent, we have adhered to several key strategies:

4 We pay market-competitive rates. We use highly reliable data sources and rigorous compensation analysis to help ensure alignment to the market.

4 We adhere to the pay for performance philosophy which allows managers to reward employees based on performance within established controls.

4 We utilize several additional measures to promote fairness and consistency, including strong market data and job pricing, well-defined salary structures, comprehensive merit and incentive processes — along with clear procedures for employees to voice concerns.

4 When appropriate, pay adjustments may occur in accordance with an employee’s performance or changes in responsibilities. Adjustments may also occur with ad hoc market-based changes or as the result of an annual pay review.

#### Southern Company2025 Proxy Statement59
We conduct annual pay reviews, undertaking a deep-dive of substantially all employees every three years and analyzing targeted portions of the workforce in the interim years. We collaborate with an independent third party to perform annual pay reviews, evaluating base salary and total compensation. Detailed results are reported to the Compensation Committee and senior leadership. Our 2023 deep-dive review covered all non-union employees. Each year, high-level results of our review are communicated to all employees.

These reviews are performed to evaluate potential inequities or inconsistencies in our pay practices and consistently confirm fair and consistent pay across all operating companies.

The Compensation Committee and senior management remain vigilant in our efforts to help ensure all employees are treated fairly and consistently.

#### Clawback of Compensation

#### Clawback Provisions in the Omnibus Plans
The 2011 Omnibus Plan and the 2021 Omnibus Plan include clawback provisions that apply to PPP and LTI awards granted under those plans. These clawback provisions are triggered if (1) we are required to prepare an accounting restatement due to material noncompliance as a result of misconduct with any financial reporting requirement under the securities laws (Restatement Trigger), and (2) a participant knowingly or grossly negligently engaged in the misconduct, or knowingly or grossly negligently failed to prevent the misconduct, or if the participant is one of the individuals subject to automatic forfeiture under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

#### Clawback Policy
Our Clawback Policy provides us with an additional basis to recoup incentive-based compensation from certain members of our senior management, including our NEOs. The Clawback Policy applies in the following circumstances: