International Paper Company 401(k) match for hourly employees: 3% max
International Paper Company Hourly Savings Plan · IP · CIK 51434
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
3%
The International Paper hourly plan matches 50% of the first 6% of pay.
The match, vesting and enrollment terms below are for hourly employees: they are read from the International Paper Company Hourly Savings Plan. International Paper's Form 11-K filings for plan year 2025 describe two separate 401(k) plans. They do not all state the same match, so each one is listed below with the group it covers and what it pays.
From the Form 11-K filed June 29, 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 International Paper 401(k) plan are you in?
International Paper's Form 11-K filings for this plan year describe two plans, and they do not state the same match. 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 International Paper Company Hourly Savings Plan.
International Paper Company Hourly Savings Plan (the plan this page answers for)
Hourly employees · Form 11-K ↗
3% of pay, at most
International Paper Company Salaried Savings Plan
Salaried employees · Form 11-K ↗
4.8% of pay, at most
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 the International Paper hourly plan puts in, and what the plan costs
What International Paper put into the plan, per active participant
$1,815
International Paper Company put $1,815 into this plan for each of its 19,680 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.
International Paper put in less per active participant than 81% 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 322100, which International Paper 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.
Both filings are for the International Paper Company Hourly Savings Plan, which covers hourly employees, so this figure and the terms above describe the same group.
What this figure cannot separate: how much International Paper 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 130872805, plan 118 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $1,815 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. International Paper Company also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $1,485 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 the International Paper hourly plan puts in
$1,485
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“Company Matching Contributions—Generally the Company matches 50% of participants’ contributions up to 6% of a participant’s annual compensation. Hourly non-union employees at certain acquired locations receive a grandfathered company match rate of 100% of the first 3% of compensation, and 50% on the next 3% of compensation. Company matching contributions are made in cash.”
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
57.14 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 4% 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: 0%, 0%, 0%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Vesting—Participants are immediately vested in their participant contributions and rollover contributions, plus earnings thereon. Participants become 100% vested in Company matching contributions, RSA contributions (if applicable), plus earnings thereon, after three years of service. Participants also are fully vested in amounts contributed by the Company, plus earnings thereon, upon attainment of age 65, termination of employment due to death or disability, or termination of employment due to permanent closure or sale of an employee’s work facility. Forfeited balances of terminated participants are used to reduce future 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
42nd percentile
$47.13 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 58% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is the International Paper hourly plan's 401(k) match formula?
The International Paper hourly plan's 401(k) employer match tops out at 3% of pay. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 50% of the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 3% of compensation |
| Paid in company stock | No, paid in cash or per your investment elections |
| Conditions | Hourly non-union employees at certain acquired locations receive a grandfathered company match rate of 100% of the first 3% of compensation and 50% on the next 3% of compensation, a maximum of 4.5% of compensation. Company matching contributions are made in cash. |
| Other employer contribution | Retirement Savings Account (RSA) contribution based on compensation, for employees at designated locations (rate not stated in the filing) |
At a $75,000 salary, contributing 6% ($4,500) earns the full employer match of $2,250 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“Company Matching Contributions—Generally the Company matches 50% of participants’ contributions up to 6% of a participant’s annual compensation. Hourly non-union employees at certain acquired locations receive a grandfathered company match rate of 100% of the first 3% of compensation, and 50% on the next 3% of compensation. Company matching contributions are made in cash.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What is the International Paper hourly plan's 401(k) vesting schedule?
The International Paper hourly plan vests the employer match on a cliff schedule: nothing is yours until three years of service, then 100% at once. Leave a day early and the employer money goes back to the plan, the edge a three-year cliff creates.
| Employer match vesting | Cliff: 100% vested after 3 years of service |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Year of service | Three years of service |
| Accelerated vesting | Fully vested upon attainment of age 65, termination of employment due to death or disability, or termination of employment due to permanent closure or sale of an employee's work facility; 100% vested in the event of Plan termination |
| Other employer contributions | RSA contributions, plus earnings thereon, become 100% vested after three years of service on the same schedule as matching contributions |
Vesting, word for word
“Vesting—Participants are immediately vested in their participant contributions and rollover contributions, plus earnings thereon. Participants become 100% vested in Company matching contributions, RSA contributions (if applicable), plus earnings thereon, after three years of service. Participants also are fully vested in amounts contributed by the Company, plus earnings thereon, upon attainment of age 65, termination of employment due to death or disability, or termination of employment due to permanent closure or sale of an employee’s work facility. Forfeited balances of terminated participants are used to reduce future Company contributions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join the International Paper hourly plan's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
The International Paper hourly plan enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay.
| Plan entry | Generally eligible on the first of the month following the completion of one month of continuous service if the employee is an hourly employee at a designated location and is employed on a non-temporary basis |
|---|---|
| Excluded groups | Temporary employees and hourly employees at locations not designated for participation (the Company separately sponsors the International Paper Company Salaried Savings Plan) |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; default investment: As of July 1, 2025, the age appropriate target date fund as determined by year of birth (previously the Tier 1 Smartmix Moderate Fund); new employees are automatically enrolled 45 days from the date they become eligible |
Eligibility, word for word
“Eligibility to Participate—An employee is generally eligible to participate in the Plan on the first of the month following the completion of one month of continuous service if the employee is an hourly employee at a designated location and is employed on a non-temporary basis. Participation in the Plan is voluntary. New employees are automatically enrolled in the Plan 45 days from the date they become eligible to participate, unless they otherwise decline participation.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Participant Contributions—Participant contributions may be made as before-tax, after-tax or Roth 401(k) contributions, or in any combination, and are subject to certain Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) limitations. The maximum rate of participant contributions is 85% of annual compensation as defined by the Plan. Collectively bargained employees who are automatically enrolled contribute at the rate of 6%, with the exception of members of the DC2 Master agreement, who contribute at a rate of 4%, unless they elect an alternate contribution percentage. Employees who are automatically enrolled will contribute at the rate that qualifies the Participant to receive the maximum Company Contribution available to him or her, with the exception of members of the DC2 Master agreement. Hourly non-union and participating union employees who contribute less than 6% are re-enrolled into the Plan annually by adding an additional pre-tax percentage to their existing deferral rates necessary to equal 6% total contributions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What does the International Paper plan report on Form 5500?
The International Paper plan reported $1.8B in assets and 28,278 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $1,788,645,778 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 28,278 |
| Recordkeeper | Empower |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $47.13 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $47.13 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 Empower as its recordkeeper, one of 7,876 plans it runs in the data we publish. Of those, the 7,814 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $165.69 per participant.
How does the International Paper hourly plan's 401(k) match compare?
The International Paper hourly plan's maximum 401(k) match of 3% 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 report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 0.25% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 3.6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same 3-year cliff as International Paper.
Compare International Paper Company with any company, side by side
What do International Paper's other 401(k) plans say?
International Paper Company Salaried Savings Plan
Salaried employees
International Paper Company matches 70% of the first 4% of pay, then 50% of the next 4% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4.8% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
- Employer match vesting
- Cliff: 100% vested after 3 years of service
- Automatic enrollment
- Yes: default deferral 8% of pay; 45-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%; default investment: Age-appropriate target date fund determined by year of birth as of July 1, 2025 (previously the Tier 1 Smartmix Moderate Fund, discontinued)
What the filing says, word for word
“Company Matching Contributions—The Company matches in cash all participant contributions at 70% on the first 4% of compensation contributed to the Plan and 50% on the next 4% of compensation contributed to the Plan. Retirement Savings Account—The Company makes a Retirement Savings Account (“RSA”) contribution for employees equal to 3% of compensation for employees under 40, 4% for employees 40 through 49, 5% for employees 50 through 54, and 6% for employees 55 and above.”
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 29, 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 International Paper Company's 401(k) match for hourly employees?
The International Paper Company Hourly Savings Plan covers hourly employees. International Paper Company matches 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the International Paper Company 401(k) match vest for hourly employees?
Cliff: 100% vested after 3 years of service.
Does International Paper Company's 401(k) plan for hourly employees have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; default investment: As of July 1, 2025, the age appropriate target date fund as determined by year of birth (previously the Tier 1 Smartmix Moderate Fund); new employees are automatically enrolled 45 days from the date they become eligible.
Cite: 401(k) Monitor, “International Paper Company 401(k) plan facts for hourly employees”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000051434-26-000103, plan year ended 2025-12-31.