Employers were trying to trim those benefit expenses.
The move will reduce G.M.'s annual pension and retirement benefit expenses and improve operating earnings.
AMR said special items in the third quarter included a charge of $40 million, or 13 cents a share, related to salary and benefit expenses from previous quarters.
It attributed the change to adjustments in health care and post-retirement benefit expenses, and said those had no effect on cash used in operating activities.
AT&T said its earnings were also weighed down by pension and retiree benefit expenses that were higher by $400 million, or 5 cents a share, than in the same period last year.
But that was before a recent round of cost-cutting, a significant price increase and tough bargaining with unions that lowered wage and benefit expenses by $28 million a year, and more cuts are expected.
And as companies head into this fall's open enrollment season, many are considering a switch from co-pay to co-insurance as a way to increase employee cost-sharing and contain rising health benefit expenses, said Tom Billet, director for health and group benefits at the consulting firm Towers Watson.
Although the ranks of city workers have thinned significantly in recent years, paying them has become increasingly expensive, in large part because of contracts signed under Mayor Richard M. Daley, who granted higher wages and also saw a significant spike in health benefit expenses.
S&P analyst Todd Rosenbluth noted that Qwest's adjusted EBITDA rose in the quarter, after taking out pension and other benefit expenses.
On the positive side, Manchester United said employee benefit expenses for the quarter were down 6.6% compared to the same quarter a year ago, thanks mainly to lower player wages.
Companies say older workers are among their most productive, and that this offsets their higher compensation and benefit expenses.
