Illinois Tool Works Inc. 401(k) match: 4.5% max
ITW Savings and Investment Plan · ITW · CIK 49826
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
4.5%
Illinois Tool Works Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 3% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4.5% of pay.
Illinois Tool Works' Form 11-K filings for plan year 2025 describe two separate 401(k) plans. The terms on this page are read from the ITW Savings and Investment Plan. Not all of them state a match formula, so each one is listed below with the group it covers and what its filing says.
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: which plan you are in · 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
Which Illinois Tool Works 401(k) plan are you in?
Illinois Tool Works' Form 11-K filings for this plan year describe two plans, and not all of them state a match formula. Find the plan you are in before you take a number off this page. The terms in the rest of the page are read from the ITW Savings and Investment Plan.
ITW Savings and Investment Plan (the plan this page answers for)
The filing states no limit on who this plan covers · Form 11-K ↗
4.5% of pay, at most
ITW Bargaining Savings and Investment Plan
Employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement · Form 11-K ↗
Match not stated as a formula
One row per plan, taken from the two Form 11-K reports this site has read for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each maximum comes from that plan’s own filing and describes only that plan.
What Illinois Tool Works puts in, and what the plan costs
What Illinois Tool Works put into the plan, per active participant
$6,487
Illinois Tool Works Inc. put $6,487 into this plan for each of its 15,573 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.
Illinois Tool Works put in more per active participant than 83% 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 332110, which Illinois Tool Works 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 Illinois Tool Works 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 361258310, plan 003 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $6,487 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Illinois Tool Works Inc. also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,228 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 Illinois Tool Works puts in
$2,228
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company matching contribution for each group is as follows: Group I - Dollar-for-dollar match on the first 1% and 50¢ per $1 on the next 5% of eligible compensation contributed. Group II - Dollar-for-dollar match on the first 3% and 50¢ per $1 on the next 3% of eligible compensation contributed. The Group II Company Basic Contribution formula is based on age and years of service. Eligible Group II participants must be age 21 or older to receive this contribution.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 6% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,970 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 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' interest in their employee and Company matching contribution accounts are fully vested at all times. Eligible Group II participants' interests in their Company Basic Contribution accounts become fully vested after three years of service.”
The match starts with the job. This is a filed term, and it does not move the score above.
Eligibility, word for word
“The Plan is a defined contribution plan in which employees of participating business units of Illinois Tool Works Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries (the "Company") in the United States are eligible to participate as soon as administratively feasible upon hire.”
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
67th percentile
$74.39 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 67% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Illinois Tool Works' 401(k) match formula?
Illinois Tool Works' 401(k) employer match tops out at 4.5% of pay. 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 3% of pay |
| Maximum employer match | 4.5% of compensation |
| Conditions | The 100%/50% formula on the first 3% and next 3% applies to Group II (employees hired on or after January 1, 2007 and employees of certain business units participating on or after that date). Group I (all Plan participants as of December 31, 2006 and certain other business units) instead receives a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 1% and 50 cents per $1 on the next 5% of eligible compensation contributed. |
| Other employer contribution | Company Basic Contribution for eligible Group II participants age 21 or older, with a formula based on age and years of service; Group I participants are not eligible |
At a $75,000 salary, contributing 6% ($4,500) earns the full employer match of $3,375 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company matching contribution for each group is as follows: Group I - Dollar-for-dollar match on the first 1% and 50¢ per $1 on the next 5% of eligible compensation contributed. Group II - Dollar-for-dollar match on the first 3% and 50¢ per $1 on the next 3% of eligible compensation contributed. The Group II Company Basic Contribution formula is based on age and years of service. Eligible Group II participants must be age 21 or older to receive this contribution.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Illinois Tool Works' 401(k) vesting schedule?
Illinois Tool Works 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 | Eligible Group II participants' interests in their Company Basic Contribution accounts become fully vested after three years of service; 100% vesting of Company contributions on Plan termination |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants' interest in their employee and Company matching contribution accounts are fully vested at all times. Eligible Group II participants' interests in their Company Basic Contribution accounts become fully vested after three years of service.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Illinois Tool Works' 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Illinois Tool Works enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay, rising 1% a year to 10% of pay.
| Plan entry | Employees of participating business units of Illinois Tool Works Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States are eligible to participate as soon as administratively feasible upon hire |
|---|---|
| Match eligibility | Company matching contribution begins immediately upon the start of participant contributions |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10% |
Eligibility, word for word
“The Plan is a defined contribution plan in which employees of participating business units of Illinois Tool Works Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries (the "Company") in the United States are eligible to participate as soon as administratively feasible upon hire.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Employees will be automatically enrolled in the Plan unless participation is declined. During the plan year, automatically-enrolled participants were enrolled at a 6% pre-tax contribution rate, which will escalate each year by 1% until a rate of 10% is reached, unless a participant elects otherwise.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 11, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What does the Illinois Tool Works plan report on Form 5500?
The Illinois Tool Works plan reported $4.2B in assets and 27,772 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $4,193,864,066 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 27,772 |
| Recordkeeper | Great-West Trust Company, LLC |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $74.39 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $74.39 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.
Itw Savings And Investment Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Illinois Tool Works' 401(k) match compare?
Illinois Tool Works Inc.'s maximum 401(k) match of 4.5% of pay compares with a median of 4.5% across the 181 companies in our data with a computable formula.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in industrial and materials manufacturing, two land near Illinois Tool Works' maximum match and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay, level with Illinois Tool Works.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay, level with Illinois Tool Works.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Illinois Tool Works.
Compare Illinois Tool Works Inc. with any company, side by side
What do Illinois Tool Works' other 401(k) plans say?
ITW Bargaining Savings and Investment Plan
Employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement
Illinois Tool Works Inc.'s match terms are set by collective bargaining agreements; the 11-K for the plan year ended December 31, 2025 does not state a single formula.
- Employer match vesting
- Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed
- Automatic enrollment
- Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence)
What the filing says, word for word
“Participant and Company contributions may begin once the eligibility requirements under the Plan are attained. The Company provides a contribution based on formulas set forth for each collectively bargained group of the Company.”
What can you do next?
Check your own balance and contribution rate at Empower ↗, the recordkeeper this plan reports.
- 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.
- Download this data (CSV)
Formula, vesting and source references for this company, one file.
Questions this filing answers
What is Illinois Tool Works Inc.'s 401(k) match?
Illinois Tool Works Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 3% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4.5% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Illinois Tool Works Inc. 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Illinois Tool Works Inc.'s 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%.
Cite: 401(k) Monitor, “Illinois Tool Works Inc. 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000049826-26-000039, plan year ended 2025-12-31.