Company: SOJE
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0000092122-25-000032
Chunk: 83

Company: SOUTHERN CO
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 83
---
.

4 The change in pension value as shown in the Summary Compensation Table is not due to any changes or modifications to the existing program or plan formula.

4 Traditional pension plans are extremely sensitive to interest rate changes and changes to macroeconomic factors such as interest rates are outside of the Company’s control.

We determined our median employee based on an analysis of all employees as of December 31, 2022. We used total cash compensation as reported in Form W-2 for 2022 as our consistently applied compensation measure. We then applied a statistical sampling approach to identify employees who we expected were paid within a +/- 0.1% range above and below our estimated median total cash compensation value. From this group, we selected an employee who was reasonably representative of our median employee based on average employee tenure and age. We did not exclude any employees across the Southern Company system in identifying the median employee nor did we annualize compensation for any of our employees.

As permitted under SEC rules, we may identify our median employee for purposes of providing pay ratio disclosure once every three years, provided that there has been no change in the employee population or employee compensation arrangements that we reasonably believe would result in significant change to the 2024 pay ratio. In accordance with SEC rules, we determined that there were no changes to the employee population or compensation arrangements in 2024 that would be significant to the pay ratio calculation, so we have continued to retain the median identified for the 2022 pay ratio.

After identifying the median employee, we calculated the median employee’s annual total compensation.

4 The annual total compensation of the median employee, calculated in accordance with the Summary Compensation Table requirements and including amounts paid under nondiscriminatory health and welfare benefit plans, was $155,611. The median employee is a Plant Operator for one of our state-regulated electric utilities.

4 The CEO’s annual total compensation was $23,903,473. This amount includes the total compensation amount included in the Summary Compensation Table and approximately $18,300 in nondiscriminatory health and welfare benefits.

As of December 31, 2024, the Southern Company system had over 28,600 employees across 34 states. We have an average tenure of approximately 14 years and a turnover rate of approximately 7.2%. Compensation for the majority of our employees includes variable compensation under programs similar to the annual incentive plan described in the CD&A. Notwithstanding collective bargaining agreements that make certain employees ineligible for the annual incentive program, more than 93% of the total employees are