Employee Benefits

9 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2019

Cooper’s Retirement Income Plan (the Plan), a defined benefit plan, covers substantially all full-time United States employees. Our 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.

Our results of operations for the three and nine months ended July 31, 2019 and 2018, reflect the following components of net periodic defined benefit costs:



Periods Ended July 31,	Three Months						Nine Months
(In millions)	2019			2018			2019			2018
Service cost	$	2.2		$	2.7		$	7.6		$	8.1
Interest cost	2.1			1.3			4.6			3.8
Expected return on plan assets	(2.8		)	(2.3		)	(7.4		)	(6.9		)
Recognized net actuarial loss	(0.2		)	0.4			0.6			1.2
Net periodic pension cost	$	1.3		$	2.1		$	5.4		$	6.2

We contributed $5.0 million to the Plan in the first nine months of fiscal 2019 and 2018. The expected rate of return on Plan assets for determining net periodic benefit plan cost is 8%.

Retirement Income Plan Soft Freeze

On June 18, 2019 the Board of Directors of the Company approved a soft freeze of the Plan effective August 1, 2019. The Plan was closed to employees hired on or after August 1, 2019, including former participants or employees rehired on or after August 1, 2019 and employees hired in connection with a stock or asset acquisition, merger or other similar transaction on or after August 1, 2019. Existing employees already covered by the Plan, continue to accrue their benefits. There is no material impact on the Company's results of operations, financial position and cash flows for the three and nine months ended July 31, 2019.