Employee benefits

The Company sponsors a number of U.S. and foreign pension plans as well as other nonpension postretirement and postemployment plans to provide various benefits for its employees. These plans are described within the footnotes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in the Company’s 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Components of Company plan benefit expense for the periods presented are included in the tables below.

Pension



	Quarter ended
(millions)	March 30, 2019			March 31, 2018
Service cost	$	9		$	22
Interest cost	45			42
Expected return on plan assets	(85		)	(92		)
Amortization of unrecognized prior service cost	2			2
Recognized net (gain) loss	1			(9		)
Total pension (income) expense	$	(28	)	$	(35	)

Other nonpension postretirement



	Quarter ended
(millions)	March 30, 2019			March 31, 2018
Service cost	$	3		$	5
Interest cost	10			9
Expected return on plan assets	(21		)	(24		)
Amortization of unrecognized prior service (gain)	(2		)	(2		)
Total postretirement benefit (income) expense	$	(10	)	$	(12	)

Postemployment



	Quarter ended
(millions)	March 30, 2019			March 31, 2018
Service cost	$	1		$	1
Interest cost	—			—
Recognized net (gain) loss	(1		)	(1		)
Total postemployment benefit expense	$	—		$	—

For the quarter ended March 30, 2019, the Company recognized a loss of $1 million related to the remeasurement of a U.S. pension plan as current year distributions are expected to exceed service and interest costs resulting in settlement accounting for that particular plan. The amount of the remeasurement loss recognized was due primarily to an unfavorable change in the discount rate.

Company contributions to employee benefit plans are summarized as follows:



(millions)	Pension		Nonpension postretirement		Total
Quarter ended:
March 30, 2019	$	1	$	4	$	5
March 31, 2018	$	15	$	4	$	19
Full year:
Fiscal year 2019 (projected)	$	7	$	18	$	25
Fiscal year 2018 (actual)	$	270	$	17	$	287

Prior year contributions included $250 million of pre-tax discretionary contributions to U.S. plans in the second quarter of 2018 designated for the 2017 tax year. Plan funding strategies may be modified in response to management's evaluation of tax deductibility, market conditions, and competing investment alternatives.