Employee Benefits

3 Months Ended

Jan. 31, 2014

General Discussion of Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefits

Employee Benefits

Cooper’s Retirement Income Plan (Plan), a defined benefit plan, covers substantially all full-time United States employees. Cooper’s contributions are designed to fund normal cost on a current basis and to fund the estimated prior service cost of benefit improvements. The unit credit actuarial cost method is used to determine the annual cost. Cooper pays the entire cost of the Plan and funds such costs as they accrue. Virtually all of the assets of the Plan are comprised of equities and participation in equity and fixed income funds.

Cooper’s results of operations for the three months ended January 31, 2014 and 2013 reflect the following components of net periodic pension costs:

Three Months Ended January 31,
(In thousands)	2014			2013
Service cost	$	1,768		$	1,846
Interest cost	988			821
Expected returns on assets	(1,237		)	(961		)
Amortization of prior service cost	6			6
Recognized net actuarial loss	154			547
Net periodic pension cost	$	1,679		$	2,259

Cooper contributed $1.1 million to the pension plan in the fiscal first quarter of 2014, and expects to contribute an additional $7.7 million in fiscal 2014. We contributed $0.4 million to the pension plan in the fiscal first quarter of 2013. The expected rate of return on plan assets for determining net periodic pension cost is 8%.