Nordson Corporation 401(k): Fidelity, match 3% max
Nordson Employees' Savings Trust Plan · NDSN · CIK 72331
Fidelity Investments 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
3%
Nordson Corporation matches 50% of the first 6% of pay.
Nordson's Form 11-K filings for plan year 2025 describe two separate 401(k) plans. The terms on this page are read from the Nordson Employees' Savings Trust Plan. Both state the same maximum match.
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 · who holds your account · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
Which Nordson 401(k) plan are you in?
Nordson's Form 11-K filings for this plan year describe two plans and all of them state the same maximum employer match. The group each plan covers still differs, and so can the vesting and enrollment terms further down this page, which are read from the Nordson Employees' Savings Trust Plan.
Nordson Employees' Savings Trust Plan (the plan this page answers for)
The filing states no limit on who this plan covers · Form 11-K ↗
3% of pay, at most
Nordson Hourly-Rated Employees' Savings Trust Plan
Hourly employees · Form 11-K ↗
3% 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 Nordson puts in, and what the plan costs
What Nordson put into the plan, per active participant
$3,797
Nordson Corporation put $3,797 into this plan for each of its 3,133 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.
Nordson put in more per active participant than 51% 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 333200, which Nordson 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 Nordson 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 340590250, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $3,797 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Nordson Corporation 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 Nordson puts in
$1,485
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company makes matching contributions equal to 50% of each participant’s contributions, which are attributable to the first 6% of compensation, subject to Plan restrictions.”
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
71.43 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 32% 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: 0%, 33.33%, 66.67%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are fully vested in all employee contributions and rollover contributions and the related gains and losses. Participants vest in employer contributions (adjusted for gains and losses) 33 1/3% for each year of service.”
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
51st percentile
$55.78 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 51% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Nordson's 401(k) match formula?
Nordson'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 |
| Other employer contribution | Effective July 1, 2021, the Company also makes an additional 3% nonelective employer contribution on an annual basis for employees hired or rehired on or after July 1, 2021 and actively employed through December 31 of each year. |
| Other employer contribution | Effective March 1, 2022, the Company began making an additional 3% nonelective employer contribution on an annual basis for employees who opted out of the Nordson Salaried Employees Pension Plan and are actively employed through December 31 of each year. |
At a $90,000 salary, contributing 6% ($5,400) earns the full employer match of $2,700 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company makes matching contributions equal to 50% of each participant’s contributions, which are attributable to the first 6% of compensation, subject to Plan restrictions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Nordson's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Nordson vests the employer match on a graded schedule: 33.33% after one year, rising to 100% after three. Each step is money that leaves with you that year, which is how a graded schedule differs from a cliff.
| Employer match vesting | Graded: 33.33% at 1 yr, 66.67% at 2 yr, 100% at 3 yr |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | In the event of Plan termination, participants will become 100% vested in their accounts. |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are fully vested in all employee contributions and rollover contributions and the related gains and losses. Participants vest in employer contributions (adjusted for gains and losses) 33 1/3% for each year of service.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Nordson's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Nordson enrolls new hires automatically at 6% of pay, rising 1% a year to 10% of pay.
| Plan entry | All salaried and non-union hourly domestic employees of the Company are eligible to become active participants in the Plan beginning with the first payroll period after completion of one hour of service. |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10% |
Eligibility, word for word
“All salaried and non-union hourly domestic employees of the Company are eligible to become active participants in the Plan beginning with the first payroll period after completion of one hour of service.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Unless otherwise elected, new employees are auto-enrolled into the Plan after 30 days of employment with pre-tax contributions in an amount equal to a percentage determined by the Nordson Retirement Committee, currently 6% of their compensation.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Fidelity Investments, filed as “FIDELITY INVESTMENTS INST OPERATION”. 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.
Participants log in at Fidelity NetBenefits ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Fidelity Investments or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Fidelity Investments |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 042647786 |
What does the Nordson plan report on Form 5500?
The Nordson plan reported $732.9M in assets and 5,674 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $732,913,398 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 5,674 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $55.78 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $55.78 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.
Read from the Form 5500 filing of Nordson Employees' Savings Trust Plan, which has no page of its own here.
How does Nordson's 401(k) match compare?
Nordson Corporation's maximum 401(k) match of 3% 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 industrial and materials manufacturing, two land near Nordson's maximum match 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 3% of pay. Also in industrial and materials manufacturing.
Maximum match 3% of pay, level with Nordson.
Maximum match 3% of pay, level with Nordson.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 3 years. Also fully vested after 3 years, like Nordson.
What do Nordson's other 401(k) plans say?
Nordson Hourly-Rated Employees' Savings Trust Plan
Hourly employees
Nordson Corporation matches 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
- Employer match vesting
- Graded: 33.33% at 1 yr, 66.67% at 2 yr, 100% at 3 yr
- Automatic enrollment
- Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company makes matching contributions equal to 50% of each participant’s contributions, which are attributable to the first 6% of compensation, subject to Plan restrictions.”
What can you do next?
- 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.
Questions this filing answers
What is Nordson Corporation's 401(k) match?
Nordson Corporation matches 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Nordson Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Graded: 33.33% at 1 yr, 66.67% at 2 yr, 100% at 3 yr.
Does Nordson Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 6% of pay; 30-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%.
Who is the recordkeeper for Nordson Corporation's 401(k)?
Fidelity Investments is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Nordson Employees' Savings Trust 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 Nordson Corporation 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 | Nordson Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 72331 |
| Accession number | 0000072331-26-000045 |
| Plan | Nordson Employees' Savings Trust Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 29, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Nordson Corporation, 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, “Nordson Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000072331-26-000045, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
