401(k) Monitor

Pfizer Savings Plan

Pfizer Inc. · New York, NY · EIN 135315170 · Plan 002 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024

What Pfizer put into the plan, per active participant

$18,743

Pfizer Inc. put $18,743 into this plan for each of its 29,469 active participants in plan year 2024. That is the whole employer side, matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions and reallocated forfeitures together, because the Form 5500 reports them on one line, so it is not the match rate.

0 · least per person100 · most per person

Pfizer put in more per active participant than 95% 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 Pfizer Inc. 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 Pfizer 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: Form 5500 filing for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, received by the DOL October 2, 2025 · DOL EFAST2

The $18,743 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Pfizer Inc. also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula on its own for plan year 2025: the section 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 the plan cost, per participant

$158.34

The plan paid $158.34 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, more expensive than 95% of plans with 5,000+ participants. The middle plan of that size paid $54.84.

Why a plan this big pays less per person before anything else

Bigger plans pay less per head by construction, because the same negotiated bill divides across more people. That is why this ranking sits inside the plan's own size cohort and is never taken across all plans.

Schedule H reports only what came out of plan assets. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees taken inside fund expense ratios, never appear here, so this is a floor and not the all-in cost.

401(k) Monitor Score

68 out of 100

Where this plan stands against plans of its size and industry on two amounts its Form 5500 reports: employer money in per active person, and plan-paid cost per person. It reads no match formula, no vesting schedule and no fund lineup, because a Form 5500 states none of them.

  • What the employer put in, per active participant: $18,743. Higher than 95% of plans with 5,000+ participants in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
  • What the plan cost, per participant: $158. Cheaper than 5% of plans with 5,000+ participants.

How this score is built

On this page: the match and vesting terms · what to check next · every figure on the filing · fees itemised · the plans this one is ranked against · service providers

The match and vesting terms, from a Form 11-K

The match formula and the vesting schedule are stated in a Form 11-K, which is filed only by employers whose plan holds company stock. A Form 5500 reports neither.

What Pfizer puts in

$2,228

a year, at a $49,500 salary.

The match paragraph, word for word
For all participants, contributions of up to 3% of eligible compensation are matched 100% by the Company and the next 3% are matched 50% by the Company. Participant contributions in excess of 6% are not matched.

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.

Vesting scheduleImmediate

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 are immediately 100% vested in their contributions and the Company matching contributions. However, for the RSC, participants are 100% vested after three years of credited 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.

The formula, the six-year window and a worked example

What the plan costs, against plans of its size

95th percentile

$158.34 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 95% of plans with 5,000+ participants.

The match, vesting and eligibility terms above are read from the Form 11-K filed by Pfizer Inc., whose page states the full formula, the vesting schedule and the sentence behind each one.

Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. That Form 11-K covers Pfizer Savings Plan.

What to check next

  • Collecting the whole match

    Pfizer’s Form 11-K pays the whole match at 6% of pay, which is $2,228 a year at a $49,500 salary and scales with your own. Your payslip and your Fidelity NetBenefits account both show the rate you set. A rate below 6% collects less than the whole match.

    That Form 11-K covers plan year 2025. The plan’s Summary Plan Description states the terms in force, and the plan administrator must provide it to participants on request.

  • What to ask about the fees

    This plan paid $158.34 per participant out of plan assets, more than 95% of plans with 5,000+ participants, where the middle plan paid $54.84. The filing does not say what the difference buys. Two questions put that to a benefits or HR team: what the recordkeeping and administration contract costs, and how much of it comes out of participant accounts rather than being paid by Pfizer. The lines this total is made of are further down.

  • Your own numbers are not on this page

    Every figure here is the whole plan for plan year 2024, taken from one filing and divided by headcounts. Your own contribution rate, your balance and the fees taken from your account are on your recordkeeper’s site, which this filing names as Fidelity NetBenefits. What you may put in during a year is set by the IRS and not by the plan: this year’s limits ↗.

Key figures

From Schedule H of Form 5500 filing 20251002084241NAL0000160195001, plan year 2024.
Total plan assets, end of year$21,987,152,800
Net assets$21,973,079,939
Participants, beginning of year59,490
Of which active29,469
Plan typeSingle employer
Size cohortThe peer group we rank fees against.5,000+ participants
Employer share of the money that went in, plan year 2024The rest came from employees, who put in $593,649,452. The share falls when employees save more, so a plan whose staff contribute heavily reads lower here through no act of the employer. It is printed as a fact and it is not part of the score.48%

Plan-paid administrative expenses

The plan paid $9,419,816 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 59,490 participants: $158.34 per participant.

Contract administrator feesnot reported in filing
Professional feesnot reported in filing
Investment management fees$3,349,422
Other administrative fees$4,102,648

These are plan-paid expenses from Schedule H only. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees embedded in fund expense ratios, never appear here. This figure is a floor, not the all-in cost, and a low number is not “free”.

The plans this one is ranked against

Fees on this page are ranked against the 5,000+ participant cohort, where the median plan pays $54.84 per participant. The sponsor files from New York, one of 3,878 plans on file there, at a median of $108.03 per participant. Its business code places the plan in pharmaceuticals and chemicals, one of 942 on file, which run to a median of $128.47.

Plans of a similar size in New York

The plans nearest this one by participant count, out of 114 in its peer group. Cost per participant is each plan’s own Schedule H figure, and a filing that reported no administrative expenses says so instead of showing a zero.
PlanParticipantsCost per participant
ABM 401(k) Employee Savings PlanABM Industries Incorporated89,480$11.44
Morgan Stanley 401(k) PlanMorgan Stanley Domestic Holdings, LLC81,090$210.50
The Wegmans Retirement PlansWegmans Food Markets Inc.52,123$6.92
The Goldman Sachs 401(k) PlanThe Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.48,550$331.98

Service providers (Schedule C)

Recordkeeper: Fidelity Investments (as filed: “FID INV INST OPS CO”)

10,593 plans on file name Fidelity Investments as their recordkeeper, at a median of $97.71 per participant.

Providers from Schedule C, Part 1, Item 2 of filing 20251002084241NAL0000160195001. Direct compensation is paid from plan assets. Amounts in USD.
ProviderService codesDirect comp. ($)Indirect comp. ($)
Alliance Bernstein51, 283,475,117not reported
Fid Inv Inst Ops Co71, 65, 64, 50, 21, 37, 142,791,8800
Wellington Trust Company52, 51, 281,441,280260,610
T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.51, 50, 28818,8310
Sei Investments Company51, 28474,587not reported
State Street Global Advisors51, 28179,777209,976
The Northern Trust Company51, 50, 28, 21, 1894,0830

Source

DatasetDOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA)
Form year2024
Filing ACK_ID20251002084241NAL0000160195001
Dataset last refreshedJuly 28, 2026

Bulk dataset at askebsa.dol.gov ↗ · Look up the filing on EFAST2 ↗

Filings lag by design: a plan can file up to 9½ months after its year ends, so this is the newest data on file. Why filings lag

Cite this page

401(k) Monitor, "Pfizer Savings Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20251002084241NAL0000160195001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 68 out of 100 (exact value 68.23).