Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2020

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

Employee Benefit Plans

The accounting guidance on defined benefit pension and other postretirement plans requires full recognition of the funded status of defined benefit and other postretirement plans on the balance sheet as an asset or a liability. The guidance also requires that unrecognized prior service costs/credits, gains/losses, and transition obligations/assets be recorded in AOCI, thus not changing the income statement recognition rules for such plans.

The Company provides postretirement medical benefits (the “Plan”) for eligible regular full and part-time domestic employees (including spouses) who retired prior to January 1, 2016, as outlined by the Plan. The Plan is unfunded, and the liability, unrecognized gain, and associated income statement impact are immaterial. The liability is recorded in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets as of July 31, 2020 and 2019. The unrecognized gain is reported as a component of AOCI.

The Company also has two deferred compensation plans, the Executive Deferred Compensation Plan and the Director Deferred Compensation Plan which allow for compensation to be deferred into either the Company's Class A Nonvoting Common Stock or in other investment funds. Neither plan allows funds to be transferred between the Company's Class A Nonvoting Common Stock and the other investment funds. The Company also has an additional non-qualified deferred compensation plan, the Brady Restoration Plan, which allows an equivalent benefit to the Matched 401(k) Plan and the Funded Retirement Plan for executives' income exceeding the IRS limits for participation in a qualified 401(k) plan. Deferred compensation of $18,606 and $15,744 was included in "Other liabilities" in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets as of July 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

The Company has retirement and profit-sharing plans covering substantially all full-time domestic employees and certain employees of its foreign subsidiaries. Contributions to the plans are determined annually or quarterly, according to the respective plan, based on income of the respective companies and employee contributions. Accrued retirement and profit-sharing contributions of $3,577 and $3,342 were included in "Other current liabilities" on the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets as of July 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The amounts charged to expense for these retirement and profit sharing plans were $12,129, $14,158, and $14,395 during the years ended July 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.