Board of Director and Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Board of Director and Employee Benefit Plans

BOARD OF DIRECTOR AND EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

Board of Directors and Officers Retirement Plan

We provide eligible executives and members of our Board of Directors an opportunity to defer to a future date the receipt of base and bonus compensation for services as well as director’s fees through the 2005 Deferred Compensation Plan (the "Deferred Plan"). Our matching contribution on base compensation deferral of executives equals the matching contribution of our profit-sharing plan with certain limits.

Members of our Board of Directors may elect to invest the deferred director fee compensation into our common stock within the Deferred Plan. Investments in our common stock are credited as hypothetical shares of common stock based on the market price of the stock at the time the compensation was earned. Upon the end of the director's service, common stock shares are issued to the director.

On December 13, 2019, the Compensation Committee elected to freeze the Deferred Plan with respect to employee participant deferrals after the 2019 plan year. Members of our Board of Directors may continue to participate in the Deferred Plan.

On December 13, 2019, the Compensation Committee adopted the Churchill Downs Incorporated Restricted Stock Unit Deferral Plan, effective January 1, 2020. Certain individual employees who are management or highly compensated employees of the Company may elect to defer settlement of RSUs granted pursuant to the 2016 Incentive Plan.

Other Retirement Plans

We have a profit-sharing plan for all employees with three months or more of service who are not otherwise participating in an associated profit-sharing plan. We match contributions made by employees up to 3% of the employee’s annual compensation and match at 50% any contributions made by the employee up to an additional 2% of compensation with certain limits. We may also contribute a discretionary amount determined annually by the Board of Directors as well as a year-end discretionary match not to exceed 4% of compensation. Our cash contribution to the plan was $3.7 million in 2020, $4.1 million in 2019, and $3.0 million in 2018.

We are a member of a noncontributory defined benefit multi-employer retirement plan for all members of the Pari-mutuel Clerk’s Union of Kentucky and several other collectively bargained retirement plans, which are administered by unions. Cash contributions are made in accordance with negotiated labor contracts. Retirement plan expense was $0.3 million in 2020,$0.6 million in 2019, and $0.7 million in 2018. Our policy is to fund this expense as accrued, and we currently estimate that future contributions to these plans will not increase significantly from prior years.