Company: DLX
Filing Date: 2025-03-10
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000027996-25-000107
Chunk: 28

Company: DELUXE CORP
Filing Date: 2025-03-10
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 28
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 the three year period 2022–2024 was $1.4 billion.

#### Compensation

#### Philosophy
The Committee designed our executive compensation program to reflect the dynamics of the markets in which we compete for talent. In constructing an overall compensation program, the Committee balances those components that are fixed (such as base salary and benefits) against components that are variable and require the achievement of certain levels of performance. The Committee also strives for a balance between compensation components that reward executives for the achievement of short-term goals with those that focus on our long-term growth. Each year the Committee reviews the form and value of long-term equity incentive grants to ensure alignment with our overall compensation philosophy and to reward attainment of our enterprise-wide goals. The Committee structures the executive pay to ensure a significant percentage is performance-based, comprised of both annual and long-term incentive awards. A substantial portion of each executive's total compensation is directly linked to our stock price and driven by the company’s performance. The Committee also acknowledges that additional compensation may occasionally be necessary to reward extraordinary efforts or retain key executives.

Our 2024 incentive pay includes both short- and long-term incentives, in the form of annual cash bonus incentives and RSUs and PSUs. This design is intended to ensure that the actual compensation earned by NEOs is aligned with company performance, and, by extension, with shareholders’ interests. The charts below illustrate the mix of 2024 base salary, time-based RSUs, and performance-based incentives (annual incentives and PSUs), presented at the target level of performance, for our President and CEO and our other NEOs.

<div align='center'>23</div>

The composition of our 2024 AIP and our long-term equity incentive program is summarized in the table below.

| Incentive                                                                                                              
 Program                                                                                                                |     | Objective                                                                                                    |     | Award Type                                                                                                                                                                         |     | Performance Metrics,  Weightings, and Vesting                           |
| AIP                                                                                                                    |     | Encourages and rewards valuable contributions to our annual financial and operational performance objectives |     | 100% cash                                                                                                                                                                          |     | 30% enterprise comparable adjusted revenue and/or business unit revenue |
| 30% enterprise comparable adjusted EBITDA                                                                              |     |                                                                                                              |     |                                                                                                                                                                                    |     |                                                                         |
| 20% enterprise comparable adjusted earnings per share                                                                  |     |                                                                                                              |     |                                                                                                                                                                                    |     |                                                                         |
| 20% strategic initiatives                                                                                              |     |                                                                                                              |     |                                                                                                                                                                                    |