Company: COHU
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001437749-25-010672
Chunk: 46

Company: COHU INC
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 46
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 the eligibility requirements of a Qualifying Retiring Employee. These requirements include being a minimum age for retirement, having completed a minimum number of years of service with Cohu, including tenure as a senior executive, and providing specific advance notice of the request to receive retirement benefits. This policy does not apply to any equity awards granted before March 2023. This policy applies to all our NEOs including our CEO. We believe providing these potential retirement benefits will help us compete for and retain executive talent as well as facilitate orderly transitions for retiring executives.

No Hedging or Pledging

Cohu’s Insider Trading Policy prohibits all officers, directors, and other employees with access to sensitive Company information from engaging in any form of hedging transaction (derivatives, equity swaps, forwards, etc.) in Cohu’s stock, including, among other things, short sales and transactions involving publicly traded options. In addition, such officers, directors, and employees are prohibited from holding Cohu stock in margin accounts and from pledging Cohu stock as collateral for loans. We believe that these policies further align the interests of our officers and directors with those of our stockholders.

Tax and Accounting Considerations

In designing our executive compensation program, the Compensation Committee takes into consideration the tax and accounting effects that each element of compensation will or may have on Cohu and our executive officers. The Compensation Committee seeks to keep the compensation expense associated with our executive compensation program as a whole within reasonable levels. When determining how to apportion between differing elements of compensation, the Compensation Committee’s goal is to meet our business objectives while maintaining cost neutrality. For example, if the Compensation Committee increases benefits under one compensation plan or arrangement resulting in higher compensation expense, it may seek to decrease benefits under another plan or arrangement to avoid compensation expense that is above the desired level.

Deductibility of Executive Compensation

Under Section 162(m), compensation paid to each of our NEOs and other “covered employees” that exceeds $1 million per taxable year is generally non-deductible. The Compensation Committee reserves the discretion, in its judgment, to approve compensation payments that may not be deductible as a result of the deduction limit of Section 162(m) when it believes that such payments are appropriate to attract and retain executive talent and are in the best interests of Cohu and our stockholders.

Taxation of Nonqualified Deferred Compensation

Section 409A of the Code requires that amounts that qualify as “nonqualified deferred compensation” satisfy requirements with respect to the timing of deferral elections, timing of payments,