EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 29, 2015

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

5.  EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

We maintain a noncontributory qualified defined benefit pension plan (“Pension Plan”) which covers certain eligible current and former employees, which has been frozen since March 31, 2009.  No new participants may enter the Pension Plan and no further benefits will accrue.  However, years of service continue to count toward early retirement calculations and vesting of benefits previously earned.

We also have a limited number of supplemental retirement plans to provide certain key current and former employees with additional retirement benefits.  These plans are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis and the accrued pension obligation is largely included in other long-term obligations.

The elements of retirement expense are as follows:

	Three Months Ended
	March 29,		March 30,
(in thousands)	2015		2014
Pension plans:
Service Cost	$	2,920	$	2,008
Interest Cost		21,248		22,751
Expected return on plan assets		(26,571)		(26,865)
Prior service cost amortization		—		3
Actuarial loss		5,549		4,002
Net pension expense		3,146		1,899
Net post-retirement benefit credit		(653)		(741)
Net retirement expenses	$	2,493	$	1,158

In January 2014, we contributed $25.0 million of cash to the Pension Plan.  We do not intend to make any contributions to the Pension Plan during fiscal year 2015.

We have a defined contribution plan (“401(k) plan”), which enables qualified employees to voluntarily defer compensation.  The 401(k) plan includes a matching company contribution and a supplemental contribution that is tied to our performance.  We suspended our matching contribution to the 401(k) plan in 2009 and as of March 29, 2015, we have not reinstated that benefit.