Company: CENX
Filing Date: 2025-04-25
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001552781-25-000153
Chunk: 18

Company: CENTURY ALUMINUM CO
Filing Date: 2025-04-25
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 18
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 and recommended the executive compensation benchmarking peer group and recommended how the Committee should position the Company’s compensation in relation to these peers. Interactions between FW Cook and management are generally limited to discussions on behalf of the Committee or as required to fulfill requests at the Committee’s direction. The Committee considers the information presented by FW Cook with respect to compensation matters, but all decisions regarding the compensation of our NEOs in 2024 were made by the Committee. During 2024, FW Cook did not provide any services to the Company other than the services provided directly to the Committee. Based on these factors, its own evaluation of FW Cook’s independence under applicable SEC and Nasdaq rules, and information provided by FW Cook, the Committee determined that the work performed by FW Cook did not raise any conflicts of interest, and that FW Cook was an independent consultant.

| 2025            
 Proxy Statement | 32 |

Compensation Discussion and Analysis Components of Executive Compensation Our executive compensation program is made up of the following principal components. The Committee may, from time to time, provide additional elements of compensation other than as described below as special circumstances arise. Base Salary Base salary is the only principal component of NEO compensation whose value is fixed rather than variable. The Committee annually reviews the salaries of our NEOs against comparable positions from peer group and survey data to determine whether adjustments are appropriate. When setting or making adjustments to base salaries, the Committee considers Peer Group salary data, each executive’s responsibilities and performance against job expectations, experience and tenure as well as the impact of base salary on other compensation elements, such as the size of target incentive awards. The Committee’s review of these factors is subjective, and no fixed value or weight is assigned to any specific factor when making salary decisions. The Company does not have employment agreements with any of its executive officers, thereby affording the Committee year-to-year flexibility in base salary determinations. Annual adjustments are generally effective in March of each year, but the Committee may also review the salaries of our NEOs in connection with a promotion or other change in responsibility. The table below sets forth the annualized base salaries of each of our NEOs effective as of March 11, 2024, and the amount by which each NEO’s 2023 base salary was adjusted in 2024. Salary adjustments for our NEOs, if any, are generally effective in March of each year or upon a change in position. The 2024 increase in base salary for each of our NEOs reflects ongoing adjustments that the Committee believed were necessary to better