EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION PLANS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Profit sharing/401(k) plan – Through December 31, 2019, we maintained a 401(k)/profit sharing plan to provide retirement benefits for certain employees. The plan covers a majority of full-time employees, as well as some part-time employees. Employees are eligible to participate in the plan after completing 30 days of service. Effective January 1, 2020, the profit sharing component of the plan was discontinued.

401(k) contributions are made by both employees and Deluxe. Employees may contribute up to 50% of eligible wages, subject to IRS limitations and the terms and conditions of the plan. For the majority of employees, we typically match 100% of the first 1% of wages contributed and 50% of the next 5% of wages contributed, beginning on the first day of the quarter following an employee's first full year of service. Effective April 1, 2020, we suspended the company match in an effort to maintain liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributions under the discontinued profit sharing plan were made solely by Deluxe and varied based on the company's performance. All employee and employer contributions are remitted to the plan's trustee. Benefits provided by the plan are paid from accumulated funds of the trust.

Employees are provided a broad range of investment options to choose from when investing their 401(k)/profit sharing plan funds. Investing in our common stock is not one of these options, although funds selected by employees may at times hold our common stock.

Cash bonus programs – We provide short-term cash bonus programs under which employees may receive cash bonus payments based on our total company performance for a given fiscal year. Payments earned are paid directly to employees shortly after the end of the year.

Expense recognized in the consolidated statements of income (loss) for these plans was as follows for the years ended December 31:


(in thousands)	2020		2019		2018
Performance-based compensation plans(1)	$	11,032	$	21,143	$	20,297
401(k) expense	2,823		10,176		9,686

(1) Excludes expense for share-based compensation, which is discussed in Note 12.

Deferred compensation plan – We have a non-qualified deferred compensation plan that allows eligible employees to defer a portion of their compensation. Participants can elect to defer up to 100% of their base salary plus up to 50% of their bonus for the year. The compensation deferred under this plan is credited with earnings or losses measured by the mirrored rate of return on phantom investments elected by plan participants, which are similar to the investments available for funds invested under our 401(k) plan. Each participant is fully vested in all deferred compensation and earnings. A participant may elect to receive deferred amounts in a lump-sum payment or in monthly installments upon termination of employment or disability. Our total liability under this plan was $4,816 as of December 31, 2020 and $5,036 as of December 31, 2019. These amounts are reflected in accrued liabilities and other non-current liabilities on the consolidated balance sheets. We hold investments in an irrevocable rabbi trust in support of our deferred compensation plan. These assets consist of investments in company-owned life insurance policies, which are included in long-term investments on the consolidated balance sheets, and totaled $11,591 as of December 31, 2020 and $11,204 as of December 31, 2019.