Note 14 - Retirement Plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Notes to Financial Statements

Retirement Benefits [Text Block]

14. 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 June 30, 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 and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020 and 2019:

	Three Months Ended						Six Months Ended
	June 30,						June 30,
	2020			2019			2020			2019
Interest cost	$	117		$	150		$	234		$	300
Expected return on plan assets		(186	)		(169	)		(371	)		(339	)
Amortization of loss		36			141			71			282
Net periodic pension expense	$	(33	)	$	122		$	(66	)	$	243

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