7. Retirement Benefits

Savings Plan

Griffin maintains the Griffin Industrial Realty, Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan (the “Griffin Savings Plan”) for its employees, a defined contribution plan whereby Griffin matches 60% of each employee’s contribution, up to a maximum of 5% of base salary. Griffin’s contributions to the Griffin Savings Plan in fiscal 2016, fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2014 were $64, $60 and $64, respectively.

Deferred Compensation Plan

Griffin maintains a non-qualified deferred compensation plan (the “Deferred Compensation Plan”) for certain of its employees who, due to IRC regulations, cannot take full advantage of the Griffin Savings Plan. Griffin’s liability under its Deferred Compensation Plan at November 30, 2016 and 2015 was $4,334 and $3,981, respectively. These amounts are included in other liabilities on Griffin’s consolidated balance sheets. The expense for Griffin’s matching benefit to the Deferred Compensation Plan in fiscal 2016, fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2014 was $7, $22 and $28, respectively.

The Deferred Compensation Plan is unfunded, with benefits to be paid from Griffin’s assets. The liability for the Deferred Compensation Plan reflects the amounts withheld from employees, Griffin’s matching benefit and any gains or losses on participant account balances based on the assumed investment of amounts credited to participants’ accounts in certain mutual funds. Participant balances are tracked and any gain or loss is determined based on the performance of the mutual funds as selected by the participants.

Postretirement Benefits

Through March 10, 2014, Griffin maintained an unfunded postretirement benefits program that provided principally health and life insurance benefits to certain of its employees. Only those employees who were employed by Griffin’s predecessor company as of December 31, 1993 were eligible to participate in the postretirement benefits program.

On March 11, 2014, Griffin terminated its postretirement benefits program. Accordingly, the remaining liability under the postretirement benefits program was reversed and all actuarial gains under the postretirement program that had been reflected in accumulated other comprehensive income were reclassified into net income in fiscal 2014. As essentially all of the participants in the postretirement benefits program had been employees of Imperial, and charges related to the postretirement benefits program had been included in the results of the landscape nursery business that is now presented as a discontinued operation, the effect of the termination of the postretirement benefits program is mostly reflected in the results of discontinued operations in Griffin’s consolidated statement of operations for fiscal 2014.

As a result of the Imperial Sale (see Note 10) prior to the termination of the postretirement benefit program, the liability for postretirement benefits was reduced from $332 at November 30, 2013 to $23 in the 2014 first quarter. A curtailment gain of $309 is included in the determination of the loss on the Imperial Sale.

Changes in the program's benefit obligation for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2014 are as follows:


Change in benefit obligation:
Benefit obligation at beginning of year	$	332
Actuarial gain		(14)
Interest cost		4
Service cost		1
Benefits paid		—
Amortization of actuarial gain		(14)
Curtailment gain		(309)
Benefit obligation at end of year	$	—

The components of Griffin’s postretirement benefits income for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2014 were as follows:


Service cost	$	1
Interest		4
Amortization of actuarial gain		(14)
Curtailment gain		(309)
Total income		(318)
Other changes in benefit obligations recognized in other comprehensive loss:
Actuarial gain		(14)
Total recognized in net periodic benefit income and other comprehensive loss	$	(332)

A discount rate of 4.60% was used to compute the accumulated postretirement benefit obligations prior to the program termination in fiscal 2014. The discount rate used was based on the spot rate of the Citigroup Pension Discount Curve, which was used to discount the projected cash flows of the program. A discount rate of 4.60% was used to compute the net periodic benefit expense for fiscal 2014 through the termination of the postretirement benefits program.