On February 24, 1994, our Board of Directors approved the Shoe Carnival Retirement Savings Plan (the “Domestic Savings Plan”). The Domestic Savings Plan is open to all employees working in the continental United States who have been employed for at least one year, are at least 21 years of age and who work at least 1,000 hours in a defined year. The primary savings mechanism under the Domestic Savings Plan is a 401(k) plan under which an employee may contribute up to 20% of annual earnings with us matching the first 4% at a rate of 50%. Our contributions to the participants’ accounts become fully vested when the participant reaches their third anniversary of employment with us. Contributions charged to expense were $738,000, $733,000, and $695,000 in fiscal years 2018, 2017, and 2016, respectively.

On March 19, 2012, our Board of Directors approved the Shoe Carnival Puerto Rico Savings Plan (the “Puerto Rico Savings Plan”). The Puerto Rico Savings Plan is open to all employees working in Puerto Rico who have been employed for at least one year, are at least 21 years of age and who work at least 1,000 hours in a defined year. This plan is similar to our Domestic Savings Plan, whereby an employee may contribute up to 20% of his or her annual earnings, with us matching the first 4% at a rate of 50%. Contributions charged to expense were $16,000, $18,000 and $15,000 in fiscal years 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

On May 11, 1995, our shareholders approved the Shoe Carnival, Inc. Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “Stock Purchase Plan”) as adopted by our Board of Directors on February 9, 1995. The Stock Purchase Plan reserves 450,000 shares of our common stock (subject to adjustment for any subsequent stock splits, stock dividends and certain other changes in our common stock) for issuance and sale to any employee who has been employed for more than a year at the beginning of the calendar year, and who is not a 10% owner of our common stock, at 85% of the then fair market value up to a maximum of $5,000 in any calendar year. Under the Stock Purchase Plan, 7,000, 10,000 and 10,000 shares of common stock were purchased by participants in the plan and proceeds to us for the sale of those shares were approximately $177,000, $205,000 and $223,000 for fiscal years 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. At February 2, 2019, there were 77,000 shares of unissued common stock reserved for future purchase under the Stock Purchase Plan.

The following table summarizes information regarding stock-based compensation expense recognized for the Stock Purchase Plan:

(In thousands)

2018

2017

2016

Stock-based compensation expense before the

recognized income tax benefit⁽¹⁾

Income tax benefit

In fiscal 2000, we established a non-qualified deferred compensation plan for certain key employees who, due to Internal Revenue Service guidelines, cannot take full advantage of the employer-sponsored 401(k) plan. Participants in the plan elect on an annual basis to defer, on a pre-tax basis, portions of their current compensation until retirement, or earlier if so elected. While not required to, we can match a portion of the employees’ contributions, which would be subject to vesting requirements. The compensation deferred under this plan is credited with earnings or losses measured by the rate of return on investments elected by plan participants. The plan is currently unfunded. Compensation expense for our match and earnings on the deferred amounts was $154,000 for fiscal 2018, $1.8 million for fiscal 2017 and $1.5 million for fiscal 2016. The total deferred compensation liability at February 2, 2019 and February 3, 2018 was $12.1 million and $11.6 million, respectively.