Retirement Plans

9 Months Ended

Feb. 28, 2021

Compensation And Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Retirement Plans

(7) Retirement Plans

We sponsor programs that provide retirement benefits to most of our employees. These programs include defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution plans and postretirement healthcare plans. Key terms of our retirement plans are provided in our Annual Report.

Our retirement plans costs for the periods ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 were as follows (in millions):

	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
	2021		2020		2021		2020
Defined benefit pension plans, net	$	20	$	38	$	72	$	112
Defined contribution plans		182		147		493		425
Postretirement healthcare plans		21		21		62		64
Retirement plan mark-to-market (“MTM”) net loss		—		—		52		—
	$	223	$	206	$	679	$	601

Net periodic benefit cost of the pension and postretirement healthcare plans for the periods ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 included the following components (in millions):

	Three Months Ended
	U.S. Pension Plans						International Pension Plans						Postretirement Healthcare Plans
	2021			2020			2021			2020			2021		2020
Service cost	$	213		$	192		$	19		$	25		$	11	$	10
Other retirement plans (income) expense:
Interest cost		240			250			10			11			10		11
Expected return on plan assets		(447	)		(400	)		(13	)		(13	)		—		—
Amortization of prior service credit and other		(2	)		(26	)		—			(1	)		—		—
		(209	)		(176	)		(3	)		(3	)		10		11
	$	4		$	16		$	16		$	22		$	21	$	21
	Nine Months Ended
	U.S. Pension Plans						International Pension Plans						Postretirement Healthcare Plans
	2021			2020			2021			2020			2021		2020
Service cost	$	638		$	576		$	68		$	73		$	33	$	31
Other retirement plans (income) expense:
Interest cost		719			750			31			33			29		33
Expected return on plan assets		(1,339	)		(1,201	)		(38	)		(39	)		—		—
Amortization of prior service credit and other		(6	)		(78	)		(1	)		(2	)		—		—
MTM net loss		—			—			52			—			—		—
		(626	)		(529	)		44			(8	)		29		33
	$	12		$	47		$	112		$	65		$	62	$	64

We made voluntary contributions to our U.S. Pension Plans of $300 million during the nine months of 2021 and $1.0 billion during the nine months of 2020.

We incurred a pre-tax, noncash MTM net loss of $52 million in the second quarter of 2021 related to amendments to the TNT Express Netherlands Pension Plan. Benefits for approximately 2,100 employees were frozen effective December 31, 2020. On January 1, 2021, these employees began earning pension benefits under a separate, multi-employer pension plan. This $52 million net loss consists of a $106 million MTM loss due to a lower discount rate and a $54 million curtailment gain.

In 2020, we announced the closing of our U.S.-based defined benefit pension plans to new non-union employees hired on or after January 1, 2020. We will introduce an all-401(k)-plan retirement benefit structure for eligible employees with a higher company match of up to 8% across all U.S.-based operating companies in 2022. During calendar 2021, current eligible employees under the Portable Pension Account (“PPA”) pension formula will be given a one-time option to continue to be eligible for pension compensation credits under the existing PPA formula and remain in the existing 401(k) plan with its match of up to 3.5%, or to cease receiving compensation credits under the pension plan and move to the new 401(k) plan with the higher match of up to 8%. Changes to the new 401(k) plan structure become effective beginning January 1, 2022. While this new program will provide employees greater flexibility and reduce our long-term pension costs, it will not have a material impact on current or near-term financial results.