Note 14 - Retirement Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Notes to Financial Statements

Retirement Benefits [Text Block]

1 4 . RETIREMENT PLANS

Multi-employer Defined Benefit Plan

Pension benefits for substantially all of the Company’s Alaska-based employees are provided through the Alaska Electrical Pension Fund (“AEPF”). The Company pays a contractual hourly amount based on employee classification or base compensation to the AEPF. As a multi-employer defined benefit plan, the accumulated benefits and plan assets are

not

determined for, or allocated separately to, the individual employer. This plan was

not

in endangered or critical status during the plan year.

Defined Benefit Plan

The Company has a separate defined benefit plan that covers certain employees previously employed by Century Telephone Enterprise, Inc. (“CenturyTel Plan”). This plan was transferred to the Company in connection with the acquisition of CenturyTel, Inc.’s Alaska properties, whereby assets and liabilities of the CenturyTel Plan were transferred to the ACS Retirement Plan (the “Plan”) on

September 1, 1999.

As of

March 31, 2020,

this plan is

not

fully funded under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of

1974,

as amended.

The following table presents the net periodic pension expense for the ACS Retirement Plan for the

three

-month periods ended

March 31, 2020

and

2019:

	Three Months Ended
	March 31,
	2020			2019
Interest cost	$	117		$	150
Expected return on plan assets		(185	)		(170	)
Amortization of loss		35			141
Net periodic pension expense	$	(33	)	$	121

Net periodic pension expense is included in the line item “Other income, net” in the Statements of Comprehensive Income.