Pension And Postretirement Benefits

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2022

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Pension And Postretirement Benefits

NOTE 6. PENSION AND POSTRETIREMENT BENEFITS

Many of our employees are covered by one of our noncontributory pension plans. We also provide certain medical, dental, life insurance and death benefits to certain retired employees under various plans and accrue actuarially determined postretirement benefit costs. Our objective in funding these plans, in combination with the standards of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), is to accumulate assets sufficient to provide benefits described in the plans to employees upon their retirement. We do not have significant funding requirements in 2022.

We recognize actuarial gains and losses on pension and postretirement plan assets in our consolidated results as a component of “Other income (expense) – net” at our annual measurement date of December 31, unless earlier remeasurements are required. Total distributions from the pension plan exceeded the threshold of service and interest costs for 2022, requiring us to follow settlement accounting and remeasure our pension benefit plan assets and obligations at each quarter-end in 2022. These remeasurements resulted in the recognition of an actuarial gain of $216 in the third quarter and $2,573 for the first nine months of 2022. Similar to 2022, in 2021, we were required to follow settlement accounting and remeasure our pension benefit plan assets and obligations at each quarter end.

During the third quarter of 2022, we committed to, and reflected in our results, plan changes impacting postretirement health and welfare benefits. This plan change reduced our postretirement benefit obligation approximately $2,400 and aligns our benefit plans to market level. In conjunction with this plan change, we also remeasured the postretirement plan assets and liabilities as of July 1, 2022, and recognized an actuarial gain of $1,084.

As part of our 2022 remeasurements, we updated the weighted-average discount rates used to measure our pension and postretirement benefit obligations as summarized in the table below.

	Pension Benefits								Postretirement Benefits
	Dec. 31, 2021		Mar. 31, 2022		Jun. 30, 2022		Sep. 30, 2022		Dec. 31, 2021		Jul. 1, 2022
Weighted-average discount rate for determining benefit obligation	3.00	%	3.70	%	4.80	%	5.50	%	2.80	%	4.70	%
Discount rate in effect for determining service cost, for period beginning	3.20	%	3.80	%	4.90	%	5.50	%	3.10	%	4.90	%
Discount rate in effect for determining interest cost, for period beginning	2.30	%	3.40	%	4.40	%	5.30	%	2.10	%	4.20	%
Expected long-term rate of return on plan assets (annual rate)	6.75	%							4.50	%
Actual return on plan assets (YTD rate)			(5.20	%)	(11.30	%)	(15.40	%)			(12.20	%)

The following table details qualified pension and postretirement benefit costs included in the accompanying consolidated statements of income. The service cost component of net periodic pension (credit) cost is recorded in operating expenses in the consolidated statements of income while the remaining components are recorded in “Other income (expense) – net.”

	Three months ended				Nine months ended
	September 30,				September 30,
	2022		2021		2022		2021
Pension cost:
Service cost – benefits earned during the period	$	141	$	241	$	488	$	723
Interest cost on projected benefit obligation	481		321		1,216		951
Expected return on assets	(740)		(890)		(2,410)		(2,617)
Amortization of prior service credit	(33)		(36)		(100)		(108)
Net pension (credit) cost before remeasurement	(151)		(364)		(806)		(1,051)
Actuarial (gain) loss	(216)		(374)		(2,573)		(3,021)
Net pension (credit) cost	$	(367)	$	(738)	$	(3,379)	$	(4,072)
Postretirement cost:
Service cost – benefits earned during the period	$	7	$	11	$	25	$	34
Interest cost on accumulated postretirement benefit obligation	75		53		201		158
Expected return on assets	(23)		(38)		(88)		(114)
Amortization of prior service credit	(697)		(634)		(1,861)		(1,903)
Net postretirement (credit) cost before remeasurement	(638)		(608)		(1,723)		(1,825)
Actuarial (gain) loss	(1,084)		—		(1,084)		—
Net postretirement (credit) cost	$	(1,722)	$	(608)	$	(2,807)	$	(1,825)
Combined net pension and postretirement (credit) cost	$	(2,089)	$	(1,346)	$	(6,186)	$	(5,897)

We also provide senior- and middle-management employees with nonqualified, unfunded supplemental retirement and savings plans. Net supplemental pension benefits costs not included in the table above were $13 and $12 in the third quarter and $37 and $35 for the first nine months of 2022 and 2021, respectively. Actuarial gains were $140 in the third quarter and $181 for the first nine months of 2022.