Company: VUZI
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0001104659-25-036288
Chunk: 34

Company: Vuzix Corp
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 34
---
. Russell’s employment is terminated for cause or by Mr. Russell voluntarily, he will be entitled to receive only any accrued amounts owing him and will forfeit all unvested equity and unearned incentive payments. CEO Pay Ratio We are providing the following information about the ratio of our CEO’s total compensation for 2024 to the total compensation of our median compensated employee for 2024 (our ‘‘CEO pay ratio’’) pursuant to Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K. The CEO pay ratio disclosed below represents a reasonable, good faith estimate, calculated in a manner consistent with SEC rules, based upon our payroll and employment records and the methodology described below:

| ● | CEO total compensation: $1,036,428 |

| ● | Median Employee total compensation: $121,289 |

| ● | Ratio of CEO to Median Employee: 8.5 to 1 |

32 All data included in the calculation is prepared in accordance with the requirements of Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K. Methodology for Selecting the Median Employee We prepared a list of all 65 U.S. employees, excluding the CEO and, utilizing the amount of annual base pay of all of our U.S. employees, determined the median employee total compensation. We excluded all non-U.S. employees in our foreign locations from our median calculation as they represent less than 5% of our total full-time employee population. We selected December 31, 2024, as our determination date. The pay ratio is a reasonable estimate calculated based upon rules and guidance provided by the SEC. The SEC rules allow for varying methodologies for companies to identify their median employee total compensation; other companies may have different employment and compensation practices and may utilize different methodologies, exclusions, estimates and assumptions in calculating their own pay ratios. Consequently, the pay ratios reported by other companies are unlikely to be relevant or meaningful for purposes of comparison to our pay ratio as reported here. Pay Versus Performance Vuzix is committed to a strong pay and performance culture, and we have designed an executive compensation program where awards are aligned with Company performance and stockholder value. To this end, a significant share of executive pay is at-risk and delivered in the form of incentive compensation. We have worked to enhance this alignment by implementing a more formalized annual incentive plan focused on achieving key financial objectives and successfully completing various strategic milestones and business model drivers. The new SEC-required Pay versus Performance disclosure below provides a snapshot perspective on pay and performance alignment by evaluating the link between “Compensation Actually Paid,”