Employee Savings Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Disclosure Employee Savings Plans [Abstract]

Employee Savings Plans

Employee Savings Plans Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). The Company sponsors a qualified non-leveraged ESOP under which a maximum of 7,700,000 shares of common stock can be awarded. The shares are allocated to eligible participants’

accounts based on total cash compensation earned during the calendar year. An employee’s ESOP account vests equally after two and three years of service and requires no cash payments from the recipient. Participants may instruct the Company to pay respective dividends directly to the participant in cash or reinvest the dividends into the participants’ ESOP accounts. Employees who meet eligibility requirements can participate in the ESOP. Participants that meet certain age and service requirements are allowed to transfer balances, subject to limitation, to the Polaris 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan and thus diversify their investments. Total expense related to the ESOP was $13.9 million, $12.3 million and $10.3 million, in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. As of December 31, 2021 there were 2,996,000 shares held in the plan.

Defined contribution plans. The Company sponsors a 401(k) defined contribution retirement plan covering substantially all U.S. employees. The Company matches 100 percent of employee contributions up to a maximum of five percent of eligible compensation. All contributions vest immediately. The cost of the defined contribution retirement plan was $29.8 million, $26.9 million, and $26.2 million, in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP). The Company sponsors a SERP that provides executive officers of the Company an alternative to defer portions of their salary, cash incentive compensation, and Company matching contributions. The deferrals and contributions are held in a rabbi trust and are in funds to match the liabilities of the plan. The assets are recorded as trading assets. The assets of the rabbi trust are included in other long-term assets in the consolidated balance sheets and the SERP liability is included in other long-term liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets. The asset and liability balances are both $52.4 million and $48.3 million as of December 31, 2021, and 2020, respectively.

Executive officers and directors of the Company have the opportunity to defer certain restricted stock units. These restricted stock units are redeemable in Polaris common stock or in cash. After a holding period, the executive officer has the option to diversify the vested award into other funds available under the SERP. If the award is diversified, it must be redeemed in cash. Awards probable of vesting, for which the executive has not yet made an election to defer, and awards that have been deferred but have not yet vested and are probable of vesting are reported as deferred compensation in the temporary equity section of the consolidated balance sheets, as these awards have redemption features that are not yet solely within the control of the Company. The awards recorded in temporary equity are recognized at fair value as though the reporting date is also the redemption date, with any difference from stock-based compensation recorded in retained earnings. As of December 31, 2021, 101,521 shares are recorded at a fair value of $11.2 million in temporary equity, which includes $10.0 million of compensation cost and $1.2 million of cumulative fair value adjustment recorded through retained earnings.