When the committee determines the executive officers' base salaries during the first quarter of the year, the committee takes into account each officer's role and level of responsibility at the company as well as individual performance for the prior year. In general, executive officers with the highest level of responsibility have the lowest percentage of their compensation fixed as base salary and the highest percentage of their compensation at risk. The committee believes that the 25th percentile is an appropriate target for base salaries because the committee strives to have performance-based compensation constitute a substantial majority of executive officers' total compensation. Base salary represents a small percentage of total cash compensation (26% in 2008) and total compensation (9% in 2008) for the listed officers as set forth in the Summary Compensation table.