Employee Benefit Plans: (Notes)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Defined Benefit Plans and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans Disclosures [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans and Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pensions:

Employee Benefit Plans:

We maintain a non-contributory qualified defined benefit pension plan. Future benefit accruals for all eligible nonbargaining employees covered by the pension plan have ceased. We also maintain supplemental executive retirement plans that provide unfunded, non-qualified supplemental retirement benefits to a select group of management employees.

The components of pension benefit (income) expense, including provision for executive retirement agreements, were as follows:

	Three Months Ended June 30,						Six Months Ended June 30,
(Millions)	2020			2019			2020			2019
Benefits earned during the period (a)	$	1.0		$	0.9		$	2.0		$	1.5
Interest cost on benefit obligation (b)	9.4			11.1			18.8			22.0
Net actuarial loss (b)	2.9			7.7			2.9			7.7
Amortization of prior service credit (b)	(0.2		)	(0.2		)	(0.4		)	(0.5		)
Expected return on plan assets (b)	(14.6		)	(12.4		)	(29.3		)	(24.8		)
Net periodic benefit (income) expense	$	(1.5	)	$	7.1		$	(6.0	)	$	5.9

(a) Included in cost of services and selling, general and administrative expense.

(b) Included in other income (expense), net.

For 2020, the expected employer contributions for pension benefits consists of $52.8 million to the qualified pension plan to satisfy our remaining 2019 and 2020 funding requirements and $0.9 million necessary to fund the expected benefit payments of our unfunded supplemental executive retirement pension plans to avoid certain benefit restrictions. During the first quarter of 2020, we made our required quarterly employer contributions totaling $3.4 million in cash. The remaining required quarterly and annual employer contributions due in 2020 will be funded no later than December 31, 2020, as permitted under certain relief provisions included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”). Comparatively in the first six months of 2019, we made our required quarterly employer contributions to the qualified pension plan of $6.4 million in cash.

7. Employee Benefit Plans, Continued:

We also sponsor an employee savings plan under section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code, which covers substantially all salaried employees and certain bargaining unit employees. Windstream matches on an annual basis up to a maximum of 4.0 percent of employee pre-tax contributions to the plan for employees contributing up to 5.0 percent of their eligible pre-tax compensation. Excluding amounts capitalized, we recorded expenses of $6.4 million and $13.7 million in the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020, as compared to $6.5 million and $13.5 million for the same periods in 2019 related to our matching contribution under the employee savings plan, which was included in cost of services and selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations. Effective January 1, 2020, the 401(k) plan was amended such that the employer matching contribution is calculated and funded in cash to the plan each pay period with an annual true-up to be made as soon as administratively possible after the end of the year. During the first six months of 2020, we contributed $12.6 million in cash to fund the required 2020 employer matching contributions to date and we also contributed $25.7 million in cash to the plan in March 2020 for the 2019 annual matching contribution. We intend to fund the remaining employer matching contributions due in 2020 using cash. Comparatively, in March 2019, we contributed $26.4 million in cash to the plan for the 2018 annual matching contribution.