Associate (Employee) Benefit Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Associate (Employee) Benefit Plans

9. ASSOCIATE (EMPLOYEE) BENEFIT PLANS

Postretirement Benefits

We share certain costs of providing health and life insurance benefits to eligible retired Associates and their eligible dependents. Previously, all Associates were eligible for these benefits if they reached normal retirement age while working for us. Effective March 31, 2014, we changed the eligibility of this plan to include only those Associates who have achieved ten years of service with us as of March 31, 2014. The change will impact our net periodic benefit cost; however, this impact was partially offset by changes in the assumptions used to determine these costs. Compared to the prior year these changes included: a decrease in the discount rate of 100 basis points to 4%; a change in the future rates of participation from 50% to 15%; and a change to rely upon the mortality table issued by the Office of the Actuary of the United States Bureau of Census in October 2014.

We account for our obligations under the provisions of FASB ASC 715, Compensation - Retirement Benefits (ASC 715). ASC 715 requires that the costs of these benefits be recognized over an Associate’s active working career. Amortization of unrecognized net gains or losses resulting from experience different from that assumed and from changes in assumptions is included as a component of net periodic benefit cost over the remaining service period of active employees to the extent that such gains and losses exceed 10% of the accumulated postretirement benefit obligation, as of the beginning of the year.

The following disclosures of the net periodic benefit cost components of postretirement benefits were measured at January 1, 2015 and 2014:

	Three months ended March 31,
(In Thousands)	2015			2014
Service cost	$	15		$	88
Interest cost		22			56
Prior service cost amortization		(19	)		—
Net (gain) loss recognition		(5	)		14
Net periodic benefit cost	$	13		$	158