CVS Caremark Corporation (CVS)

Statement of The Board Recommending a Vote AGAINST the AFSCME Proposal

The Company’s Board of Directors unanimously recommends that you vote against the AFSCME Proposal because it is unnecessary and it is not in the best interests of the Company or its stockholders.

The Board and its Management Planning and Development Committee (the “Committee”) are committed to designing, implementing and administrating a compensation program for senior executives that aligns with and supports our business strategy while ensuring an appropriate link between pay,

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company performance, and results for stockholders. Any tax gross-up arrangement for a senior executive is subject to review and approval of the Committee. The Committee analyzes the need for a gross-up arrangement and considers the possible alternatives and the costs and benefits of each. The Committee determines on a case-by-case basis whether a tax gross-up is appropriate and in the best interest of the Company and its stockholders.

We believe that our executives should pay their own income taxes and we do not have a policy of providing tax gross-ups for income taxes. Tax gross-ups are used to address limited situations where the compensation intended for an executive might be unavoidably impacted by tax rules. In these situations, tax gross-ups are often the only effective way to provide the intended benefit to an executive without paying the executive too much or too little. It is critical that the Committee retain the ability to offer gross-up protections in the limited scenarios where they make sense.

Like many companies, CVS Caremark provides certain change in control protections to its executives, and as with many companies, these protections include tax gross-ups to offset the added excise taxes that might apply in a change in control scenario. For example, a large portion of our senior executives’ compensation is in the form of incentive awards which vest over multiple years of service and seek to reward long-term performance. Unless protections were offered, in the event of a change in control it is possible, if not likely, that members of senior management would lose their jobs and forfeit the intended benefits of the awards. Like many companies, CVS Caremark has provided protections for these awards, but applicable tax rules can impose excise taxes when awards vest in connection with a change in control or a termination of employment coincident to a change in control. Thus, for reasons beyond an executive’s control, the executive can be placed in the position of either losing an award or retaining the award but paying a significant excise tax which depletes the intended benefit of the award.

The rules for determining the application and amount of the change in control excise tax are arcane and often produce arbitrary results which severely penalize some executives while not affecting other executives at all. We believe that it is appropriate to provide protections that address the inequities produced by the excise tax rules and retain the incentive value of the awards we have granted to our executives. We want to continue to provide our senior executives with incentives tied to the long-term performance of the Company and we want to design these awards so that if the time comes when a change in control might be in the best interest of the Company and its stockholders, our senior management will have all the right incentives, and no unintended disincentives, to remain with the Company through the process with a full focus on the interests of the CVS Caremark and its stockholders.

The Board believes that it is essential that the Committee have access to the full range of compensation tools to enable CVS Caremark to compete for the best executive talent available and to retain that talent, both in the ordinary course and during any critical phase of strategic change that the Company might face.

The Board believes that the AFSCME Proposal would inappropriately limit the Company’s ability to offer fair and competitive protections to current and prospective senior executives and would therefore be contrary to the best interests of the Company and its stockholders.

Accordingly, the Board recommends a vote AGAINST the AFSCME Proposal.

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