PENSION AND OTHER POST-EMPLOYMENT BENEFIT PLANS

During the first quarter of 2014, the Company changed its accounting principles for the recognition of actuarial gains and losses for all of its defined benefit pension and other post-employment benefit plans and the calculation of expected return on pension plan assets. Historically, the Company recognized actuarial gains and losses as a component of accumulated other comprehensive loss in its Consolidated Balance Sheets and amortized them into its Consolidated Statements of Earnings over the average future service period of the active employees of these plans to the extent that such gains and losses were outside of a corridor. The Company elected to immediately recognize actuarial gains and losses in its Consolidated Statements of Earnings on the basis that it is preferable to accelerate the recognition of such gains and losses into earnings rather than to delay them over time. Additionally, for purposes of calculating the expected return on pension plan assets, the Company previously used a calculated value for the market-related valuation of pension plan assets. With this change in accounting, the Company now uses the actual fair value of pension plan assets. These changes improve transparency in operating results by immediately recognizing the effects of external conditions on plan obligations, investments and assumptions. Under the changes in accounting principle, actuarial gains and losses from these plans are recognized upon plan remeasurement in the fourth quarter of each year, or more frequently if a remeasurement occurs. The Company has applied these changes retrospectively, adjusting the comparative periods presented (see Note 2 for discussion of the change in accounting principles).

The net periodic benefit cost of the Company’s defined benefit pension and post-employment benefit plans includes:



	Three Months Ended September 30,											Nine Months Ended September 30,
	Pension Benefits						Other Benefits					Pension Benefits						Other Benefits
(In millions)	2014			2013			2014		2013			2014			2013			2014		2013
Service cost – benefits earned during the period	$	0.8		$	1.3		$	0.2	$	0.3		$	3.6		$	3.9		$	0.6	$	0.8
Interest cost on projected benefit obligations	3.6			3.6			0.4		0.4			11.2			10.8			1.2		1.0
Amortization of transition cost	—			—			—		—			0.2			—			—		—
Expected return on plan assets	(3.8		)	(4.3		)	—		—			(11.6		)	(12.8		)	—		—
Amortization of prior service benefit	—			—			—		(0.1		)	—			—			—		(0.1		)
Net periodic benefit cost	$	0.6		$	0.6		$	0.6	$	0.6		$	3.4		$	1.9		$	1.8	$	1.7
Curtailments	(5.4		)	—			—		—			(5.4		)	—			—		—
Net Actuarial (Gains)/Losses	9.3			(7.3		)	—		—			16.4			(27.2		)	—		—
Total net periodic benefit cost	$	4.5		$	(6.7	)	$	0.6	$	0.6		$	14.4		$	(25.3	)	$	1.8	$	1.7

The Company remeasures its U.S. pension plan when year-to-date aggregate lump sum settlements exceed anticipated interest costs for the year and in each subsequent quarter of that fiscal year as well as at year-end. Because aggregate lump sum settlements exceeded anticipated interest costs for 2014 during the second quarter, the Company remeasured its U.S. pension plan in both the second and third quarter of 2014. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company recognized a net actuarial loss of $9.3 million and $16.4 million, respectively.

In addition, in the second quarter of 2014, MJN changed the yield curve used in the determination of its discount rate for purposes of measuring the obligation related to the Company’s U.S. pension plan. This change results in a better, more refined estimate of the pension obligation. The change in the yield curve resulted in an approximate $8 million gain which was offset by the remeasurement of the U.S. pension plan.

During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company recognized a gain of $5.4 million within Other Expenses/(Income) - net related to the curtailment of a defined benefit pension plan outside the U.S.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, the Company contributed $4.2 million and $6.1 million, respectively, to pension plans, primarily outside the U.S.