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Compensation Descriptions

Compensation Element Form Eligibility Performance Period Determination
Base salary Cash All salaried employees Annual
  • For executive officers, targets are set to the median of comparable companies, adjusted to reflect individual responsibility and performance.
Short-term incentives Cash All executives, most salaried staff and hourly union and non-union employees 1 year
  • Based on achieving predetermined goals for corporate performance or a combination of corporate and operating group performance.
  • Can be adjusted (± 20%) to recognize individual performance.
  • Beginning January 1, 2008, this annual cash bonus plan was extended to all Canadian and US hourly employees (union and non-union), providing a strong incentive for them to focus on achieving operational and corporate goals.
Medium-term incentives Performance share units All executives and senior management (66 people) 3 years
  • Units issued at our 30-day average share price on award date.
  • Units vest and are paid out at the end of the three-year performance period, calculated whereby half the units vest based on total shareholder return (TSR)1 and half based on our TSR relative to the TSR of a selected peer group2.
  • Payout value is equal to the number of vested units multiplied by our 30-day average share price at the end of the performance period (subject to a maximum of three times the initial unit price).
Long-term incentives Performance options All executives, senior management and other selected management (258 people) 3 years (vesting)

10 years (option term)
  • Performance options incorporate a performance-based vesting schedule measuring the three-year average excess of cash flow return over our weighted average cost of capital.
  • Vested share value is based on our share price appreciation within the option term.
1TSR is the total shareholder return on an investment in PotashCorp stock from the time the investment is made
TSR has two components: (1) growth in share price and (2) related dividend income on the shares
2January 1, 2006 - December 31, 2008: Dow Jones US Basic Materials Index
January 1, 2009 - December 31, 2011: DAXglobal Agribusiness Index