Merck US Savings Plan
Merck & Co., Inc. · Rahway, NJ · EIN 221918501 · Plan 001 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024
What Merck put into the plan, per active participant
$7,169
Merck & Co., Inc. put $7,169 into this plan for each of its 29,178 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.
Merck put in less per active participant than 60% 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 Merck & Co., 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 Merck 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 September 22, 2025 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $7,169 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Merck & Co., 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. 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
$3.06
The plan paid $3.06 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, cheaper than 98% of plans with 5,000+ participants. The middle plan of that size paid $54.84.
A plan-paid cost this close to zero usually means the employer pays the administrative bills directly, rather than that the plan is free. Schedule H reports only what came out of plan assets, so fees the sponsor pays and fees taken inside fund expense ratios are invisible here either way.
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
58 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: $7,169. Lower than 60% of plans with 5,000+ participants in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
- What the plan cost, per participant: $3.06. Cheaper than 98% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
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 Merck puts in
$2,228
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“In addition, the Company makes matching contributions of $0.75 for every $1.00 of an employee's contributions, up to 6% of such employee's eligible compensation (maximum match is 4.5% of eligible compensation) per pay period (to the statutory limit).”
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.
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 vested in their contributions, all Company matching contributions, plus actual earnings thereon.”
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
2nd percentile
$3.06 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 98% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
The match, vesting and eligibility terms above are read from the Form 11-K filed by Merck & Co., Inc., whose page states the full formula, the vesting schedule and the sentence behind each one.
What to check next
Collecting the whole match
Merck’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.
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
| Total plan assets, end of year | $14,970,916,966 |
|---|---|
| Net assets | $14,970,916,966 |
| Participants, beginning of year | 40,572 |
| Of which active | 29,178 |
| Plan type | Single 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 $648,207,337. 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. | 24% |
Plan-paid administrative expenses
The plan paid $123,978 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 40,572 participants: $3.06 per participant.
| Contract administrator fees | not reported in filing |
|---|---|
| Professional fees | not reported in filing |
| Investment management fees | not reported in filing |
| Other administrative fees | not reported in filing |
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 Jersey, one of 1,799 plans on file there, at a median of $116.34 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 Jersey
| Plan | Participants | Cost per participant |
|---|---|---|
| The Prudential Employee Savings PlanThe Prudential Insurance Company Of America | 43,542 | not itemized |
| Siemens Savings PlanSiemens Corporation | 42,932 | not itemized |
| RWJBarnabas Health 401(k) Savings PlanBarnabas Health Inc. | 39,466 | $51.35 |
| Conduent Savings PlanConduent Business Services, LLC | 34,249 | $16.52 |
Service providers (Schedule C)
Recordkeeper: Fidelity Investments (as filed: “FIDELITY INVESTMENTS INSTITUTIONAL”)
10,593 plans on file name Fidelity Investments as their recordkeeper, at a median of $97.71 per participant.
| Provider | Service codes | Direct comp. ($) | Indirect comp. ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fidelity Investments Institutional | 65, 71, 64, 50, 37 | 123,978 | 0 |
Useful links
- Find a 401(k) you left at an old job ↗
The DOL's Retirement Savings Lost & Found. Free and official.
- Look up this plan's full Form 5500 ↗
The DOL's own filing search. Search by plan or sponsor name.
- Download this plan's data (CSV) ↗
Every field on this page, one row, ready for a spreadsheet.
Source
| Dataset | DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA) |
|---|---|
| Form year | 2024 |
| Filing ACK_ID | 20250922090523NAL0005406704001 |
| Dataset last refreshed | July 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, "Merck US Savings Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20250922090523NAL0005406704001, plan year ended December 31, 2024. 401(k) Monitor Score 58 out of 100 (exact value 57.67).