FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ 401(k): Vanguard, match 4% max
Federal Signal Corporation Retirement Savings Plan · FSS · CIK 277509
Vanguard 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
4%
FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 2% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 18, 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 FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ puts in, and what the plan costs
What FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ put into the plan, per active participant
$3,322
FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ put $3,322 into this plan for each of its 3,837 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.
FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ put in more per active participant than 74% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants in aerospace and vehicle manufacturing. The middle plan in that group of 199 reported $2,024. Aerospace and vehicle manufacturing comes from business code 336210, which FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ 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 FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ 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 361063330, plan 004 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $3,322 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $1,980 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 FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ puts in
$1,980
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company makes a safe-harbor matching contribution equal to 100% of the first 3% and 50% of the next 2% of base compensation that a participant contributes to the Plan each pay period.”
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 in their contributions plus actual earnings thereon. Effective January 1, 2018, most participants are also immediately vested in Company contributions.”
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
55th percentile
$91.89 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 55% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What is FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/'s 401(k) match formula?
FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/'s 401(k) employer match tops out at 4% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll. A tiered formula pays its best rate on the first slice of pay and less on the next, which is how the rate steps down.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay |
|---|---|
| then | 50% of the next 2% of pay |
| Maximum employer match | 4% of compensation |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Conditions | The Company makes a safe-harbor matching contribution equal to 100% of the first 3% and 50% of the next 2% of base compensation that a participant contributes to the Plan each pay period. |
| Other employer contribution | Many participants also receive a Company-paid annual service-based contribution, ranging from 0.5% to 3.0%, based on years of service. |
At a $60,000 salary, contributing 5% ($3,000) earns the full employer match of $2,400 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company makes a safe-harbor matching contribution equal to 100% of the first 3% and 50% of the next 2% of base compensation that a participant contributes to the Plan each pay period.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 18, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/'s 401(k) vesting schedule?
FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ 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 |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their contributions plus actual earnings thereon. Effective January 1, 2018, most participants are also immediately vested in Company contributions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 18, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/'s 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ enrolls new hires automatically at 2% of pay, rising 1% a year to 10% of pay.
| Plan entry | All eligible employees may commence participation in the Plan on their date of hire unless their participation in the Plan is governed by a collective bargaining agreement, in which case they are eligible to participate in the Plan on the first day following completion of their waiting period. |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 2% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%; default investment: the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund whose "target" year is closest to the year in which the employee will turn age 65 |
Eligibility, word for word
“All eligible employees may commence participation in the Plan on their date of hire unless their participation in the Plan is governed by a collective bargaining agreement, in which case they are eligible to participate in the Plan on the first day following completion of their waiting period.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“In most circumstances, if an employee does not affirmatively enroll or decline enrollment in the Plan within 30 days of first becoming eligible to participate in the Plan, the employee will be automatically enrolled in the Plan with contributions set at 2% of pre-tax annual compensation to the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund whose “target” year is closest to the year in which the employee will turn age 65.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 18, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Vanguard, filed as “THE VANGUARD GROUP, INC.”. 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.
2,337 plans on file name Vanguard as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 2,333 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $97.87 per participant.
Participants log in at Vanguard ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Vanguard or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Vanguard |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 231945930 |
What does the FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ plan report on Form 5500?
The FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/ plan reported $544.1M in assets and 4,710 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $544,100,879 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 4,710 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $91.89 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $91.89 per participant. The median across plans in aerospace and vehicle manufacturing is $112.59, from the 899 of 934 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Read from the Form 5500 filing of Federal Signal Corporation Retirement Savings Plan, which has no page of its own here.
How does FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/'s 401(k) match compare?
FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/'s maximum 401(k) match of 4% 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 aerospace and vehicle manufacturing, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in aerospace and vehicle manufacturing.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in aerospace and vehicle manufacturing.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in aerospace and vehicle manufacturing.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Vanguard.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Vanguard.
Employer match vests immediately. Vests immediately too, like FEDERAL SIGNAL /DE/.
Compare FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ with any company, side by side
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 18, 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 FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/'s 401(k) match?
Federal Signal Corp /De/ matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 2% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/'s 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 2% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%; default investment: the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund whose "target" year is closest to the year in which the employee will turn age 65.
Who is the recordkeeper for FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/'s 401(k)?
Vanguard is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Federal Signal Corporation Retirement 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 FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ 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 | FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ |
| SEC CIK | 277509 |
| Accession number | 0001628280-26-044358 |
| Plan | Federal Signal Corporation Retirement Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 18, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/, 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, “FEDERAL SIGNAL CORP /DE/ 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001628280-26-044358, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
