Ball Corporation 401(k) match: vests immediately
Ball Corporation 401(k) and Employee Stock Ownership Plan · BALL · CIK 9389
The 401(k) employer match
Only part of the formula is filed
Ball Corporation discloses only part of its 401(k) match terms: it matches a rate set at the sponsor's discretion on the first 6% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 15, 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 · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
What Ball puts in, and what the plan costs
What Ball put into the plan, per active participant
$6,063
Ball Corporation put $6,063 into this plan for each of its 4,616 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.
Ball put in more per active participant than 80% of plans with 5,000+ participants in industrial and materials manufacturing. The middle plan in that group of 178 reported $3,585. Industrial and materials manufacturing comes from business code 332900, which Ball 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.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
What this figure cannot separate: how much Ball 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 350160610, plan 030 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What Ball puts in
Not stated in the filing
Only part of the match formula is disclosed in the filing, so the yearly dollars cannot be computed from it.
The Form 5500 for this plan reports what Ball actually paid in: the figure and its peer comparison are above. It is the whole employer side of the plan on one line, so it answers what went in rather than what the formula promises.
Two places state the terms in full: your plan’s Summary Plan Description, which your employer must provide on request, and your recordkeeper’s site, which for this plan is Voya ↗.
What you contribute to collect all of it
Not stated in the filing
The filing does not state the contribution rate that collects the full employer contribution.
Vesting score
100 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 48% of the 253 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 fully vested in their own contributions and related earnings, any Company matching contributions and certain additional Company contributions, including related earnings. Vesting in the NECC is based on completed years of service. A participant becomes 100 percent vested in the NECC after three completed years of service.”
The plan tops the match up after year end, so contributing unevenly through the year does not cost the worker part of it.
The same match paragraph, word for word
“The Company generally makes a matching contribution each pay period that is based on the percentage of eligible pay that the participant contributes. The Company matching contribution and the ratio of the Company matching contribution to the participant contribution differs depending on the employee group in which the participant belongs. The maximum percentage of eligible pay which the Company will match is 6 percent. The Plan includes matching provisions in accordance with the provisions of the applicable union contracts.”
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
73rd percentile
$82.38 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 73% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Ball's 401(k) match formula?
Ball discloses only part of its 401(k) match terms in this filing. The match is deposited each payroll and the plan pays an annual true-up. What an annual true-up repays is the arithmetic behind that line: it matters most in a year when contributions land unevenly.
| Match formula | A rate set at the sponsor's discretion on the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| True-upA year-end recalculation that repays match lost to uneven contributions. | Yes, annual true-up |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Paid in company stock | No, paid in cash or per your investment elections |
| Conditions | The match rate and the ratio of match to participant contribution differ by employee group; the maximum percentage of eligible pay matched is 6 percent; union contract provisions govern for bargaining employees; the true-up contribution generally requires employment on the last day of the plan year |
| Other employer contribution | Non-Elective Company Contribution (NECC) of 5% of 401(k) eligible earnings, paid annually after December 31, for salaried and non-union hourly employees hired on or after January 1, 2022 who are employed on the last day of the calendar year |
| Other employer contribution | Additional contributions for some employee groups, generally each pay period based on eligible hours worked ($905,971 in 2025) |
| Other employer contribution | BATC Performance Sharing Match of up to 2.0% of eligible earnings times a performance factor ended with the February 2024 sale of Ball Aerospace; no contributions of this type in 2025 |
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company generally makes a matching contribution each pay period that is based on the percentage of eligible pay that the participant contributes. The Company matching contribution and the ratio of the Company matching contribution to the participant contribution differs depending on the employee group in which the participant belongs. The maximum percentage of eligible pay which the Company will match is 6 percent. The Plan includes matching provisions in accordance with the provisions of the applicable union contracts.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 15, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Ball's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Ball 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 |
| Accelerated vesting | 100 percent vested upon Plan termination |
| Other employer contributions | The NECC vests 100 percent after three completed years of service |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are fully vested in their own contributions and related earnings, any Company matching contributions and certain additional Company contributions, including related earnings. Vesting in the NECC is based on completed years of service. A participant becomes 100 percent vested in the NECC after three completed years of service.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 15, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Ball's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Ball enrolls new hires automatically; the filing does not state the default deferral rate.
| Plan entry | All U.S. salaried and hourly employees over 18 years of age in participating subsidiaries are eligible beginning with the first day of employment; beginning January 1, 2025 there is no service hour requirement for temporary or seasonal employees |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: 30-day opt-out window; default investment: Date-specific Target Retirement fund that most closely matches the participant's expected retirement year, based on an assumed retirement age of 65 |
Eligibility, word for word
“All U.S. salaried and hourly employees of the Company, who are over 18 years of age and are in participating subsidiaries, are eligible to participate in the Plan. Employees who are considered temporary or seasonal become eligible upon completion of 1,000 hours of service in a computation period, as defined by the Plan Document. Beginning January 1, 2025, there is no service hour requirement. Eligibility to participate in the Plan begins with the first day of employment. An eligible employee who does not make an election about his or her participation in the Plan is automatically enrolled 30 days after his or her eligibility date.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“The Plan provides for the automatic enrollment at a specified percentage of pre-tax deferral of eligible pay (as defined for each group in the Plan Document) for newly hired employees, unless the employee affirmatively elects not to make a pre-tax contribution or elects to make contributions of a different amount or via the Plan’s Roth feature. The Plan also provides an automatic one- step increase. Employees may opt-out of the automatic increases at any time.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 15, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What does the Ball plan report on Form 5500?
The Ball plan reported $2.3B in assets and 14,391 participants for plan year 2024.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
| Plan named in the DOL record | Ball Corporation 401(k) And Employee Stock Ownership Plan |
|---|---|
| Total plan assets | $2,319,532,435 |
| Participants | 14,391 |
| Recordkeeper | Voya |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $82.38 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $82.38 per participant. The median across plans in industrial and materials manufacturing is $142.19, from the 5,709 of 6,008 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
The plan reports Voya as its recordkeeper, one of 915 plans it runs in the data we publish. Of those, the 912 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $96.20 per participant.
How does Ball's 401(k) match compare?
Ball Corporation's filing does not state a maximum 401(k) match as a share of pay. Across the 181 companies in our data that do, the median is 4.5% of pay.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in industrial and materials manufacturing, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Employer match vests immediately. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Voya.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Voya.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Ball.
What can you do next?
Check your own balance and contribution rate at Voya ↗, the recordkeeper this plan reports.
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 15, 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.
- Download this data (CSV)
Formula, vesting and source references for this company, one file.
Questions this filing answers
What is Ball Corporation's 401(k) match?
Ball Corporation discloses only part of its match terms in the 11-K for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Ball Corporation's Form 5500 for plan year 2024 reports $6,063 of employer money per active participant. 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. Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
When does the Ball Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Ball Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: 30-day opt-out window; default investment: Date-specific Target Retirement fund that most closely matches the participant's expected retirement year, based on an assumed retirement age of 65.
Cite: 401(k) Monitor, “Ball Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001104659-26-074003, plan year ended 2025-12-31.