Employee Benefits

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Employee Benefits

Employee Benefits

NOTE 18 Employee Benefits

The Company maintains two employee retirement plans including the Alerus Financial Corporation Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, and a defined contribution salary reduction plan, or 401(k) plan. The plans cover substantially all full-time employees upon satisfying prescribed eligibility requirements for age and length of service. Contributions to the ESOP are determined annually by the Board of Directors, at its discretion, and allocated to participants based on a percentage of annual compensation. Shares of the Company stock within the ESOP are considered outstanding and dividends on these shares are charged to retained earnings. Under the 401(k) plan, the Company contributes 100% of amounts deferred by employees up to 3% of eligible compensation and 50% of amounts deferred by employees between 3% and 6% of eligible compensation. Retirement plan contributions are reflected under employee benefits in the income statement and for years ending December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020 were as follows:

	December 31,		December 31,		December 31,
(dollars in thousands)	2022		2021		2020
Salary reduction plan	$	3,148	$	3,123	$	2,960
ESOP		1,932		2,014		2,166
Total	$	5,080	$	5,137	$	5,126
Total ESOP shares outstanding		1,111,424		1,207,952		1,170,611