EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN

8. EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN

The following represents the net periodic benefit cost and related components of the Company’s multiple employer Retirement Income Plan:

	Three months ended September 30,						Nine months ended September 30,
(in thousands)	2012			2011			2012			2011
Service cost	$	-		$	-		$	-		$	-
Interest cost		468			479			1,402			1,437
Expected return on plan assets		(462	)		(458	)		(1,386	)		(1,374	)
Amortization of net losses		167			116			501			348
Net periodic benefit cost	$	173		$	137		$	517		$	411

The Company contributed $4,146,000 to the Retirement Income Plan during the nine months ended September 30, 2012.

The Company permits selected highly compensated employees to defer a portion of their compensation into the non-qualified Supplemental Retirement Plan (“SERP”). The SERP assets are marked to market and totaled $9,111,000 as of September 30, 2012 and $8,251,000 as of December 31, 2011. The SERP assets are reported in non-current other assets on the consolidated balance sheet and changes related to the fair value of these assets are recorded in the consolidated statement of operations as part of other (expense) income, net. Trading gains (losses) related to the SERP assets totaled approximately as follows:

	Three months ended September 30,						Nine months ended September 30,
(in thousands)	2012			2011			2012		2011
Gains (losses), net		$	680	$	(735	)	$	860	$	(613	)

The SERP deferrals and the distributions are recorded in pension liabilities with any change in the fair value recorded as compensation cost.