Scotiabank is committed to providing a competitive total compensation package in the form of base pay (salary), incentive pay (both long and short-term incentives), a pension plan and benefits, which include health care, share ownership, group life, disability income protection, banking services, paid time off and an employee assistance program. In 2007, Scotiabank provided approximately $1.42 billion in base salaries to non-executive employees in Canada.

Incentive Pay

The Scotiabank Group rewards performance through a variety of incentive pay programs, which allow all employees to share in the Scotiabank Group’s success as they achieve individual performance objectives and the organization attains specific business goals.

Employee share ownership

Another way that employees can share in the Bank’s success is through one of the seven competitive employee share ownership plans we offer globally. In 2007, 87.9 per cent of our Canadian employees participated in the plan, while internationally, 54.5 per cent of eligible employees took part in available plans.

Pension plans

We offer various market-competitive pension plans for our employees around the world. The largest is the Scotiabank Pension Plan – a fully funded, defined benefit plan with assets in excess of $4 billion as at Nov. 1, 2007. More than 29,000 people in Canada – and another 15,000 around the world – were active members of a Scotiabank Group pension plan as at the end of fiscal 2007.

Employee benefits

Scotiabank offers a variety of benefits to meet the needs of our workforce including short and long-term income protection, a maternity leave supplement and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Program.

Please see the Employee Satisfaction section of the 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Report for more details on these programs.