17. Pension Benefits

The Company has a noncontributory defined benefit pension plan covering certain employees who work at least 1,000 hours per year. The participants shall have a vested interest in their accrued benefit after five full years of service. The benefits of the plan are based upon the employee’s years of service and average annual earnings for the highest five consecutive calendar years during the final ten year period of employment. Plan assets are primarily debt securities (including US Treasury and Agency securities, corporate notes and bonds), listed common stocks (including shares of AmeriServ Financial, Inc. common stock which is limited to 10% of the plan’s assets), mutual funds, and short-term cash equivalent instruments. The net periodic pension cost for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 were as follows (in thousands):


	Three months ended June 30,						Six months ended June 30,
	2017			2016			2017			2016
Components of net periodic benefit cost
Service cost	$	390		$	368		$	780		$	736
Interest cost		326			344			652			688
Expected return on plan assets		(631	)		(563	)		(1,262	)		(1,126	)
Recognized net actuarial loss		367			314			734			628
Net periodic pension cost	$	452		$	463		$	904		$	926

The Company implemented a soft freeze of its defined benefit pension plan to provide that non-union employees hired on or after January 1, 2013 and union employees hired on or after January 1, 2014 are not eligible to participate in the pension plan. Instead, such employees are eligible to participate in a qualified 401(k) plan. This change was made to help reduce pension costs in future periods.