Union Pacific Corporation 401(k) for union employees: Vanguard, match 3% max
Union Pacific Agreement Employee 401(k) Retirement Thrift Plan · UNP · CIK 100885
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
3%
The Union Pacific collectively bargained plan matches 50% of the first 6% of pay.
The match, vesting and enrollment terms below are for employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement: they are read from the Union Pacific Agreement Employee 401(k) Retirement Thrift Plan. Union Pacific filed four Form 11-K reports for plan year 2025, of which one has been read. The other three reports have not, so this page cannot say what the plans they cover pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 the Union Pacific collectively bargained plan puts in, and what the plan costs
What Union Pacific put into the plan, per active participant
$51.99
Union Pacific Corporation put $51.99 into this plan for each of its 27,598 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.
Union Pacific put in less per active participant than 98% of plans with 5,000+ participants in transportation and logistics. The middle plan in that group of 124 reported $1,783. Transportation and logistics comes from business code 482110, which Union Pacific 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 Union Pacific Agreement Employee 401(k) Retirement Thrift Plan, which covers employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement, so this figure and the terms above describe the same group.
What this figure cannot separate: how much Union Pacific 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 946001323, plan 015 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $51.99 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Union Pacific 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. 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 Union Pacific collectively bargained plan puts in
$1,485
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company contributes to the Plan on behalf of each participant who contributes to the Plan and is represented by a rail union that negotiated a matching contribution with the Company. For the participants eligible for a Company match, the Company’s matching contribution is an amount equal to 50% of the participant’s combined pre-tax, designated Roth, and after-tax contributions that are not in excess of 6% of the participant’s eligible compensation for the payroll period.”
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 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 at all times have a 100% vested interest in their accounts.”
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
47th percentile
$52.19 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 53% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is the Union Pacific collectively bargained plan's 401(k) match formula?
The Union Pacific collectively bargained plan's 401(k) employer match tops out at 3% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll. 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 |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Conditions | Match is made only on behalf of participants represented by a rail union that negotiated a matching contribution with the Company; the 6% cap applies per payroll period. |
At a $60,000 salary, contributing 6% ($3,600) earns the full employer match of $1,800 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company contributes to the Plan on behalf of each participant who contributes to the Plan and is represented by a rail union that negotiated a matching contribution with the Company. For the participants eligible for a Company match, the Company’s matching contribution is an amount equal to 50% of the participant’s combined pre-tax, designated Roth, and after-tax contributions that are not in excess of 6% of the participant’s eligible compensation for the payroll period.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is the Union Pacific collectively bargained plan's 401(k) vesting schedule?
The Union Pacific collectively bargained plan 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 at all times have a 100% vested interest in their accounts.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join the Union Pacific collectively bargained plan's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
The Union Pacific collectively bargained plan's filing does not mention automatic enrollment, which is not the same as the plan having none.
| Plan entry | One year of service (or employment as of the plan effective date, July 1, 1990) |
|---|---|
| Match eligibility | Only participants represented by a rail union that negotiated a matching contribution with the Company |
| Excluded groups | Plan covers only employees of Union Pacific Railroad Company and its railroad affiliates represented for collective bargaining by a rail union to which plan eligibility has been extended |
| Automatic enrollment | Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence) |
Eligibility, word for word
“The Plan is a defined contribution plan covering employees of the Union Pacific Railroad Company (a subsidiary of Union Pacific Corporation) and its railroad affiliates (the “Company”) who are represented for the purposes of collective bargaining by a rail union to which eligibility to participate in the Plan has been extended. The Plan covers employees who have completed one year of service or were employees as of the effective date of the Plan, July 1, 1990.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 Union Pacific plan report on Form 5500?
The Union Pacific plan reported $2.4B in assets and 33,283 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $2,389,799,139 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 33,283 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $52.19 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $52.19 per participant. The median across plans in transportation and logistics is $95.71, from the 1,843 of 1,926 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
How does the Union Pacific collectively bargained plan's 401(k) match compare?
The Union Pacific collectively bargained plan'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 transportation and logistics, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in transportation and logistics.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in transportation and logistics.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in transportation and logistics.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Vanguard.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Vanguard.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Union Pacific.
Compare Union Pacific Corporation with any company, side by side
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 26, 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 Union Pacific Corporation's 401(k) match for union employees?
The Union Pacific Agreement Employee 401(k) Retirement Thrift Plan covers employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement. Union Pacific Corporation matches 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Union Pacific Corporation 401(k) match vest for union employees?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Union Pacific Corporation's 401(k) plan for union employees have automatic enrollment?
Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence).
Who is the recordkeeper for Union Pacific Corporation's 401(k) for union employees?
Vanguard is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Union Pacific Agreement Employee 401(k) Retirement Thrift 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 Union Pacific 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 | Union Pacific Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 100885 |
| Accession number | 0000100885-26-000207 |
| Plan | Union Pacific Agreement Employee 401(k) Retirement Thrift Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 26, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Union Pacific 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, “Union Pacific Corporation 401(k) plan facts for union employees”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000100885-26-000207, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
