Employee Benefits

9 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2015

General Discussion of Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefits

Employee Benefits

Cooper’s Retirement Income Plan (Plan), a defined benefit plan, covers substantially all full-time United States employees. Our contributions are designed to fund normal cost on a current basis and to fund the estimated prior service cost of benefit improvements. The unit credit actuarial cost method is used to determine the annual cost. Cooper pays the entire cost of the Plan and funds such costs as they accrue. Virtually all of the assets of the Plan are comprised of equities and participation in equity and fixed income funds.

Our results of operations for the three and nine months ended July 31, 2015 and 2014 reflect the following components of net periodic pension costs:

Periods Ended July 31,	Three Months						Nine Months
(In thousands)	2015			2014			2015			2014
Service cost	$	2,037		$	1,768		$	6,110		$	5,305
Interest cost	1,063			988			3,191			2,963
Expected returns on assets	(1,512		)	(1,237		)	(4,538		)	(3,712		)
Amortization of prior service cost	1			6			3			18
Recognized net actuarial loss	246			154			740			462
Net periodic pension cost	$	1,835		$	1,679		$	5,506		$	5,036

Cooper contributed $2.5 million and $5.0 million to the Plan in the three and nine months ended July 31, 2015, respectively, and expects to contribute an additional $5.0 million during fiscal 2015. We contributed $1.4 million and $5.8 million to the Plan in the three and nine months ended July 31, 2014. The expected rate of return on plan assets for determining net periodic pension cost is 8%.