BENEFIT PLANS |
9 Months Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sep. 30, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Defined Benefit Plans and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans Disclosures [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BENEFIT PLANS | BENEFIT PLANS The following sets forth the components of net periodic benefit cost of the Company’s defined benefit plans and for the Company’s other postemployment benefit plans for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015:
The following sets forth the information related to the contributions to the Company’s benefit plans for 2016:
The Company predominantly uses liability durations in establishing its discount rates, which are observed from indices of high-grade corporate bond yield curves in the respective economic regions of the plan. During the first quarter of 2016, the Company changed the method utilized to estimate the service cost and interest cost components of net periodic benefit costs for the Company’s major defined benefit pension plans in Germany, Switzerland and for all defined benefit pension and other postemployment healthcare plans in the United States. Historically, the Company estimated the service cost and interest cost components using a single weighted average discount rate derived from the yield curve used to measure the benefit obligation at the beginning of the period. The Company has elected to use a spot rate approach for the estimation of these components of benefit cost by applying the specific spot rates along the yield curve to the relevant projected cash flows, as the Company believes this provides a better estimate of service and interest costs. The Company considers this a change in estimate and, accordingly, started to account for it prospectively in the quarter ended March 31, 2016. This change does not affect the measurement of the Company’s total benefit obligation. |