Retirement Plans

12 Months Ended

Sep. 25, 2015

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Expense [Abstract]

We maintain a tax-qualified Section 401(k) retirement plan for employees in the United States and similar plans in foreign jurisdictions. Under the plan, employees are eligible to receive matching contributions and profit-sharing contributions from the Company.

We also maintain a SERP, a non-qualified, employer-funded retirement plan for certain senior executives employed in the United States. The plan was adopted in October 2004 prior to our IPO and was terminated in fiscal 2005. We have not made any contributions to the SERP since fiscal 2006. The purpose of the plan was to provide these executives with the opportunity to receive retirement income benefits in addition to the benefits generally available to all employees. The benefits provided to participants were based on defined contributions that we made to the plan and the gains and losses on the investment of those contributions. At September 25, 2015, the balance in the SERP account represents amounts contributed prior to the plan's termination, with the underlying plan investments consisting primarily of mutual fund investments. SERP assets are included within prepaid expenses and other current assets and within other non-current assets, while SERP liabilities are included within accrued liabilities and within other non-current liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets.

Retirement plan expenses, which are included in cost of products, cost of services, R&D, S&M and G&A expense in our consolidated statements of operations, are as follows (in thousands):



	Fiscal Year Ended
	September 25, 2015		September 26, 2014		September 27, 2013
Retirement plan expenses	$	19,431	$	17,369	$	15,810