Employee Benefit Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

Employee Benefit Plans

We sponsor a noncontributory defined benefit pension plan and non-qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans ("SERPs"). The accrual for future benefits has been frozen in our defined benefit pension plan and SERPs.

We sponsor a defined contribution plan covering substantially all non-union and certain union employees. We match a portion of employees' voluntary contributions to this plan.

Other union-represented employees are covered by defined benefit pension plans jointly sponsored by us and the union, or by union-sponsored multi-employer plans.

The components of the employee benefit plan expense consisted of the following:

	Three Months Ended  September 30,				Nine Months Ended  September 30,
(in thousands)	2023		2022		2023		2022
Interest cost	$	5,814	$	4,333	$	17,684	$	12,999
Expected return on plan assets, net of expenses	(6,302)		(6,227)		(18,915)		(18,675)
Amortization of actuarial loss and prior service cost	5		997		14		3,026
Total for defined benefit pension plan	(483)		(897)		(1,217)		(2,650)
SERPs	232		214		698		642
Defined contribution plan	3,530		3,258		12,125		11,582
Net periodic benefit cost	$	3,279	$	2,575	$	11,606	$	9,574

We contributed $0.9 million to fund current benefit payments for our SERPs during the nine months ended September 30, 2023. During the remainder of 2023, we anticipate contributing an additional $0.5 million to fund the SERPs' benefit payments. We have met regulatory funding requirements for our qualified benefit pension plan and do not have a mandatory contribution in 2023.