NOTE 7 - EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT BENEFITS



The Company has an Employee Savings Plan (401(k)) and matches a percentage of employee contributions up to six percent of compensation.  Contributions to the plan in 2016,  2015 and 2014 were $554,000, $591,000, and $528,000, respectively.



The Company’s U.K.-based subsidiary Austin Taylor maintained a defined benefit pension plan for its employees through March 31, 2016. The Company does not provide any other post-retirement benefits to its employees.  

Components of the Company’s net periodic pension (benefit) cost are:







The Company settled all its obligations under the Austin Taylor pension plan in the first quarter of 2016. The Company had contributed $650,000 toward the settlement of the pension into annuities in 2015, which resulted in the recognition of $1,222,000 of pension settlement costs in the income statement in the fourth quarter of 2015.  The Company contributed an additional $68,000 toward the settlement in the first quarter of 2016, which resulted in a benefit of $43,000 recorded within operating expenses.  As a result of the final settlement of all of its pension obligations, in the first quarter of 2016, the Company recorded $4,148,000 in pension liability adjustment gains previously recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income within operating expenses in the consolidated statement of income.