Novo Nordisk A/S 401(k): Charles Schwab, match 1% max
Novo Nordisk Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan · NVO · CIK 353278
Charles Schwab 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
1%
Novo Nordisk A/S matches 50% of the first 2% of pay.
Novo Nordisk A/S' Form 11-K filings for plan year 2025 describe two separate 401(k) plans. The terms on this page are read from the Novo Nordisk Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan. Both state the same maximum match.
From the Form 11-K filed June 22, 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 Novo Nordisk A/S 401(k) plan are you in?
Novo Nordisk A/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 Novo Nordisk Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan.
Novo Nordisk Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan (the plan this page answers for)
The filing states no limit on who this plan covers · Form 11-K ↗
1% of pay, at most
Novo Nordisk Puerto Rico 401(k) Plan
Employees in Puerto Rico · Form 11-K ↗
1% 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 Novo Nordisk A/S puts in, and what the plan costs
What Novo Nordisk A/S put into the plan, per active participant
$4,392
Novo Nordisk A/S put $4,392 into this plan for each of its 8,783 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.
Novo Nordisk A/S put in less per active participant than 79% of plans with 5,000+ participants in pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The middle plan in that group of 63 reported $8,101. Pharmaceuticals and chemicals comes from business code 325410, which Novo Nordisk A/S 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 Novo Nordisk A/S 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 061061602, plan 001 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $4,392 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Novo Nordisk A/S also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $495 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 Novo Nordisk A/S puts in
$495
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company makes matching contributions in cash for all eligible participants equal to 50% of the first 2% of the eligible participants pre-tax or Roth 401(k) contributions if the eligible participants are contributing at least 2% of their eligible annual compensation.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 2% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $990 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
71.29 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%, 66%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are 100% vested in their own contributions plus earnings thereon. Vesting in the Company’s basic and matching contribution portion of their accounts, plus actual earnings thereon, is as follows: Years of Service Vesting % Less than 1 0 1 33 2 66 3 or more 100”
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
76th percentile
$87.41 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 76% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k) match formula?
Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k) employer match tops out at 1% 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 2% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 1% of compensation |
| Paid in company stock | No, paid in cash or per your investment elections |
| Conditions | Match applies if the eligible participant is contributing at least 2% of eligible annual compensation |
| Other employer contribution | Basic retirement contribution: 8% of eligible annual compensation for eligible employees of CILLC, NNPILP, NNE, and NNUSBPI (the same 8% basic contribution for NNDRNA, NNI, NNCDUS, NNRDUS, and NNPR employees is made to the separate Novo Nordisk Inc. Money Purchase Plan) |
At a $75,000 salary, contributing 2% ($1,500) earns the full employer match of $750 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company makes matching contributions in cash for all eligible participants equal to 50% of the first 2% of the eligible participants pre-tax or Roth 401(k) contributions if the eligible participants are contributing at least 2% of their eligible annual compensation.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 22, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What is Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k) vesting schedule?
Novo Nordisk A/S vests the employer match on a graded schedule: 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% at 1 yr, 66% at 2 yr, 100% at 3 yr |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | Full vesting upon full or partial plan termination |
| Other employer contributions | Basic Company contribution follows the same graded schedule as the employer match (33%/66%/100% at 1/2/3 years of service) |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are 100% vested in their own contributions plus earnings thereon. Vesting in the Company’s basic and matching contribution portion of their accounts, plus actual earnings thereon, is as follows: Years of Service Vesting % Less than 1 0 1 33 2 66 3 or more 100”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 22, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Novo Nordisk A/S enrolls new hires automatically at 4% of pay, rising 1% a year to 10% of pay.
| Plan entry | Date of hire |
|---|---|
| Excluded groups | residents of Puerto Rico, interns, leased employees, temporary employees with less than one year of service and 1,000 hours, employees on assignment from NNAS who are covered under the NNAS pension plan, foreign transferees from affiliates on temporary assignments who remain covered by a foreign pension plan, employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement and nonresident aliens without any U.S. source income |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 4% of pay; 60-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10% |
Eligibility, word for word
“Eligible employees of the Company are covered by the Plan upon date of hire, except for residents of Puerto Rico, interns, leased employees, temporary employees with less than one year of service and 1,000 hours, employees on assignment from NNAS who are covered under the NNAS pension plan, foreign transferees from affiliates on temporary assignments who remain covered by a foreign pension plan, employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement and nonresident aliens without any U.S. source income”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Unless an employee makes an alternative election to opt out, all employees are automatically enrolled into the Plan and their compensation, as determined under the Plan, is automatically reduced by a designated percentage on a pre-tax basis, which is deemed to be the participants’ salary reduction contribution election. Eligible employees are automatically enrolled in the Plan at an employee pre-tax deferral rate of 4% of compensation unless the employee elects a different rate within 60 days of date of hire. Participants’ salary deferral elections are automatically increased by 1% each April 1st if such contributions are less than 10% of compensation.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 22, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Charles Schwab, filed as “SCHWAB RETIREMENT PLAN SERVICES,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.
769 plans on file name Charles Schwab as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 769 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $127.09 per participant.
Participants log in at Schwab Workplace ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Charles Schwab or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Charles Schwab |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 341479833 |
What does the Novo Nordisk A/S plan report on Form 5500?
The Novo Nordisk A/S plan reported $2.5B in assets and 10,335 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $2,538,744,944 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 10,335 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $87.41 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $87.41 per participant. The median across plans in pharmaceuticals and chemicals is $128.47, from the 870 of 942 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Novo Nordisk Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k) match compare?
Novo Nordisk A/S' maximum 401(k) match of 1% 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 pharmaceuticals and chemicals, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 2% of pay. Also in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Maximum match 1.75% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Charles Schwab.
Maximum match 2% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Charles Schwab.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also fully vested after 3 years, like Novo Nordisk A/S.
What do Novo Nordisk A/S' other 401(k) plans say?
Novo Nordisk Puerto Rico 401(k) Plan
Employees in Puerto Rico
Novo Nordisk A/S matches 50% of employee contributions up to 2% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
- Employer match vesting
- Graded: 33% at 1 yr, 66% at 2 yr, 100% at 3 yr
- Automatic enrollment
- Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence)
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company makes matching contributions in cash for all eligible participants equal to 50% of employees’ before-tax contributions up to 2% of compensation, if the eligible participants are contributing at least 2% of their eligible annual compensation.”
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 22, 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 Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k) match?
Novo Nordisk A/S matches 50% of employee contributions up to 2% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Novo Nordisk A/S 401(k) match vest?
Graded: 33% at 1 yr, 66% at 2 yr, 100% at 3 yr.
Does Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 4% of pay; 60-day opt-out window; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 10%.
Who is the recordkeeper for Novo Nordisk A/S' 401(k)?
Charles Schwab is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Novo Nordisk Inc. 401(k) 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 Novo Nordisk A/S 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 | Novo Nordisk A/S |
| SEC CIK | 353278 |
| Accession number | 0001171843-26-004204 |
| Plan | Novo Nordisk Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 22, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Novo Nordisk A/S, 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, “Novo Nordisk A/S 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001171843-26-004204, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
