EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS  
EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

11.     EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

 

The Company participates in a multiple employer pension plan. The following represents the net periodic benefit (credit) cost and related components for the plan:

 

(in thousands)   Three months ended
March 31,		  
    2018     2017  
Interest cost   $ 63     $ 66  
Expected return on plan assets     (125 )     (104 )
Amortization of net losses     20       23  
Net periodic benefit (credit)   $ (42 )   $ (15 )

 

The Company did not make a contribution to this plan during the three months ended March 31, 2018.

 

The Company permits selected highly compensated employees to defer a portion of their compensation into a non-qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“SERP”). The Company maintains certain securities in the SERP that have been classified as trading. The SERP assets are marked to market and totaled $5,944,000 as of March 31, 2018 and $6,031,000 as of December 31, 2017. The SERP assets are reported in other non-current assets on the consolidated balance sheets and changes to the fair value of the assets are reported in selling, general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations.

 

Trading losses related to the SERP assets totaled approximately $92,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared to trading gains of $88,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2017.