Amgen Inc. 401(k): Merrill Lynch, match 5% max
Amgen Retirement and Savings Plan · AMGN · CIK 318154
Merrill Lynch is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for this plan, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
5%
Amgen Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 5% of pay.
Amgen filed two Form 11-K reports for plan year 2025, of which one has been read. The other report has not, so this page cannot say what the plan it covers pays.
From the Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026 ↗, covering the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Page data last updated July 28, 2026, when the Form 5500 bulk data was last refreshed. Why filings lag
On this page: what the employer actually paid in · the formula, word for word · when the money becomes yours · who can join · who holds your account · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
What Amgen puts in, and what the plan costs
What Amgen put into the plan, per active participant
$17,909
Amgen Inc. put $17,909 into this plan for each of its 14,965 active participants in plan year 2024. This is the whole employer side of the plan: matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions, and reallocated forfeitures. The Form 5500 does not separate them, so this is what the employer put in and not the match.
Amgen put in more per active participant than 92% of plans with 5,000+ participants in pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The middle plan in that group of 63 reported $8,101. Pharmaceuticals and chemicals comes from business code 325410, which Amgen entered on its own Form 5500. Sponsors pick that code themselves, so a code that does not describe what the employer does ranks the plan against the wrong companies.
What this figure cannot separate: how much Amgen pays, and how much it puts in
This is dollars, not a rate. A Form 5500 carries no payroll, so the figure reflects both how much the employer puts in and how much the employer pays: two plans running the same formula report different amounts when one pays better. Crossing the peer group with industry holds most of that difference still, and none of it disappears.
This is one plan year, not an average. A true-up, a plan merger or a one-off contribution moves a single year on its own.
Source: DOL Form 5500 for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, EIN 953540776, plan 001 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $17,909 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Amgen Inc. also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,475 a year at a $49,500 salary, and the same filing states employer contributions made outside the match. That second figure is what the formula pays one worker on that salary, and not an amount either filing reports. The two figures cover different plan years and measure different things, so neither one is the other one corrected.
What Amgen puts in
$2,475
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“In addition, the Company makes a contribution equal to amounts contributed by the participant as pre-tax contributions or Roth contributions, including such contributions designated as catch-up contributions, of up to 5% of eligible compensation (Matching Contributions) up to a maximum of $17,500 in 2025.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 5% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,475 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
100 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 48% of the 369 schedules we have scored.
It measures vesting speed and nothing else. It says nothing about the size of the match, what the plan charges, or the funds inside it.
Share of the employer's money that is the worker's at hire and at each of the first 6 anniversaries: 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested with respect to their Individual Contributions, Matching Contributions and Special Contributions, if any, and earnings and losses (hereafter referred to as earnings) thereon. Participants hired prior to January 1, 2020, are also immediately vested with respect to their Core Contributions and earnings thereon. Participants hired on or after January 1, 2020, vest in full with respect to their Core Contributions and earnings thereon after three years of service, as defined by the terms of the Plan, or upon reaching age 65 while employed by Amgen, if earlier.”
The wait before the match starts and the year-end true-up appear above when the filing states them. Neither is part of the score, and a filing that is silent on one of them is not a plan without it.
What the plan costs, against plans of its size
100th percentile
$484.62 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 100% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Amgen's 401(k) match formula?
Amgen's 401(k) employer match tops out at 5% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 5% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 5% of compensation |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Conditions | Match applies to pre-tax and Roth contributions, including catch-up contributions, up to a dollar maximum of $17,500 in 2025 |
| Other employer contribution | Core Contribution of 5% of eligible compensation each pay period for all eligible participants, whether or not they contribute, up to a maximum of $17,500 in 2025 |
| Other employer contribution | Special Contribution at Company discretion for participants in their initial year of employment who could not reach the plan maximum because of deferrals at a prior unrelated employer's plan |
At a $75,000 salary, contributing 5% ($3,750) earns the full employer match of $3,750 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“In addition, the Company makes a contribution equal to amounts contributed by the participant as pre-tax contributions or Roth contributions, including such contributions designated as catch-up contributions, of up to 5% of eligible compensation (Matching Contributions) up to a maximum of $17,500 in 2025.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Amgen's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Amgen vests the employer match immediately: 100% is yours as soon as it is paid in. Nothing is forfeited when you leave, which is not true of the two schedules that vest over time.
| Employer match vesting | Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Other employer contributions | Core Contributions: participants hired before January 1, 2020 are immediately vested; participants hired on or after January 1, 2020 vest in full after three years of service or upon reaching age 65 while employed, if earlier |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested with respect to their Individual Contributions, Matching Contributions and Special Contributions, if any, and earnings and losses (hereafter referred to as earnings) thereon. Participants hired prior to January 1, 2020, are also immediately vested with respect to their Core Contributions and earnings thereon. Participants hired on or after January 1, 2020, vest in full with respect to their Core Contributions and earnings thereon after three years of service, as defined by the terms of the Plan, or upon reaching age 65 while employed by Amgen, if earlier.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Amgen's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Amgen enrolls new hires automatically at 5% of pay, rising 1% a year to 10% of pay.
| Plan entry | The Plan covers substantially all domestic employees of Amgen and participating subsidiaries |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 5% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%; default investment: Qualified default investment alternative intended to be compliant with ERISA regulations |
Eligibility, word for word
“The Plan is a defined contribution plan covering substantially all domestic employees of Amgen Inc. (the Company or Amgen) and participating subsidiaries.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Unless an employee has voluntarily enrolled in the Plan or has declined to participate in the Plan within the first 30 days of employment, all newly eligible participants are automatically enrolled in the Plan, and contributions equal to 5% of their eligible compensation are withheld and contributed to the Plan as pre-tax contributions; such contributions are automatically increased by 1% per year until their contributions reach 10% of their eligible compensation.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Merrill Lynch, filed as “MERRILL LYNCH PIERCE FENNER & SMITH”. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to. The trustee that holds the plan’s assets can be a different company, and this filing does not name it.
663 plans on file name Merrill Lynch as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 659 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $87.18 per participant.
Participants log in at Merrill Benefits OnLine ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Merrill Lynch or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Merrill Lynch |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 135674085 |
What does the Amgen plan report on Form 5500?
The Amgen plan reported $7.7B in assets and 20,142 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $7,722,176,696 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 20,142 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $484.62 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $484.62 per participant. The median across plans in pharmaceuticals and chemicals is $128.47, from the 870 of 942 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Amgen Retirement And Savings Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Amgen's 401(k) match compare?
Amgen Inc.'s maximum 401(k) match of 5% of pay compares with a median of 4% across the 269 companies in our data with a computable formula.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in pharmaceuticals and chemicals, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Also in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Merrill Lynch.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Amgen.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026, SEC EDGAR. Every match fact on this page comes from it.
- Changed jobs? Find an old 401(k) ↗
The Department of Labor's Retirement Savings Lost & Found, a free government database.
- This year's IRS contribution limits ↗
The official deferral and catch-up limits every formula operates under.
Questions this filing answers
What is Amgen Inc.'s 401(k) match?
Amgen Inc. matches 100% of employee contributions up to 5% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Amgen Inc. 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Amgen Inc.'s 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 5% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%; default investment: Qualified default investment alternative intended to be compliant with ERISA regulations.
Who is the recordkeeper for Amgen Inc.'s 401(k)?
Merrill Lynch is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Amgen Retirement And Savings Plan for plan year 2024. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to.
Source
The match formula, the vesting schedule and the enrollment rules on this page were read from one document: the Form 11-K annual report that Amgen Inc. filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each of those fields carries the filing sentence it was read from, expandable where the field appears. Nothing on this page was supplied by the employer to this site.
The plan assets, the participant counts, the plan-paid fees and the recordkeeper come from a different document, the plan’s DOL Form 5500 annual return, and the section that reports them links it. Comparisons with other employers are computed across the filings named in the section they appear in.
Read the filing on SEC EDGAR ↗
| Document | Form 11-K annual report |
|---|---|
| Filed with | US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) |
| Filed by | Amgen Inc. |
| SEC CIK | 318154 |
| Accession number | 0000318154-26-000113 |
| Plan | Amgen Retirement and Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 11, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Amgen Inc., with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with this plan’s recordkeeper, and publishes this page without their involvement. It republishes a public filing and says where it came from.
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, “Amgen Inc. 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000318154-26-000113, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
