Employee Benefit Plans (Notes)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

Employee Benefit Plans

We have funded and unfunded defined benefit plans covering certain employee groups in the U.S. and various European countries. Local statutory requirements govern many of our European plans. The defined benefit plans are mostly closed to new participants and, in some cases, existing participants no longer accrue benefits. As of September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, the aggregate funded status of the defined benefit plans was a liability of $111 million and $110 million, respectively, and is reported in Other noncurrent liabilities and Accrued payroll-related liabilities on our Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

On June 28, 2019, we approved an amendment to terminate our primary defined benefit plan in the U.S. (the "U.S. Plan") and freeze all related benefit accruals, effective June 30, 2019. The distribution of the U.S. Plan assets pursuant to the termination will not be made until the plan termination satisfies all regulatory requirements, which is expected to be completed in 2020. U.S. Plan participants will receive their full accrued benefits from plan assets by electing either lump sum distributions or annuity contracts with a qualifying third-party annuity provider. The resulting settlement effect of the U.S. Plan termination will be determined based on prevailing market conditions, the lump sum offer participation rate of eligible participants, the actual lump sum distributions, and annuity purchase rates at the date of distribution. As a result, we are currently unable to reasonably estimate either the timing or the final amount of such settlement charges. Based on the valuation performed as of June 28, 2019, the U.S. Plan has an underfunded status of $3 million.

Net periodic benefit cost for our defined benefit plans included the following components for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018 (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2019			2018			2019			2018
Service cost	$	551		$	628		$	2,212		$	1,612
Interest cost	959			996			2,954			2,442
Expected return on plan assets	(455		)	(720		)	(1,795		)	(2,220		)
Amortization of actuarial (gain) loss	(61		)	21			229			97
Net periodic benefit cost	$	994		$	925		$	3,600		$	1,931

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, the service cost component of net periodic benefit cost was classified in Selling, general and administrative expenses, while the other components of net periodic benefit cost were classified in Other income, net in our Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income.