Compensation and Benefits

Two important advantages to working at Baxter are market competitive pay and benefits. By working to ensure fair and competitive wages and benefits for all employees worldwide, Baxter earns a reputation for being a great place to work. The company’s global total compensation philosophy is to provide market-competitive reward opportunities, pay employees for individual and business performance, and ensure employees understand how they impact both business performance and the value of their own rewards.

Baxter has a global market-based pay philosophy. Baxter's total compensation package includes a base salary and may include variable forms of pay, such as cash bonuses and stock options. It also includes a broad variety of market-competitive benefits to help employees meet their health-care, income-protection, financial, retirement, and time off needs. A number of work and life programs also help balance personal and professional obligations.

Benefits offered vary by country. The following highlights benefits offered to employees in the United States: U.S. Benefits Highlights.

An employee’s actual pay is impacted by achievement of goals and how those goals are achieved. While providing market-based pay opportunities, Baxter aligns its employees’ actual compensation with performance by making compensation decisions based on the extent to which specified performance goals are met. This philosophy and approach is used all the way to the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) and other officers.

The Compensation Committee of Baxter’s Board of Directors, which consists solely of independent, non-employee directors, determines officer compensation opportunities each year based on an assessment of competitive compensation market data, business conditions and business objectives. The Compensation Committee approves financial and non-financial goals for the officers and aligns a significant portion of the officer compensation to the attainment of those goals. At year-end, the Compensation Committee assesses individual officer performance against those goals and makes pay decisions based on the performance assessment.

(For details on officer compensation, see the Compensation Committee’s Report in Baxter’s 2006 Proxy Statement. (pdf))