Stock Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Stock Plans [Abstract]

Stock Plans

Stock Plans

Most U.S. salaried and non-union hourly employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s 401(k) plan (the "Retirement Savings Plan"). The Retirement Savings Plan provides for the investment of employer and employee contributions in various investment alternatives including the Company’s common stock, at the employee’s direction. The Company contributes an amount equal to 50% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible compensation. The Company expenses all contributions made to the Retirement Savings Plan. Effective January 1, 2013, the Retirement Savings Plan was amended to provide certain salaried employees hired on or after January 1, 2013 with an additional annual retirement contribution of 4% of eligible earnings. The Company recognized expense of $3,970, $3,679 and $4,149 in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. As of December 31, 2021, the Retirement Savings Plan held 713,442 shares of the Company’s common stock.

The Company has an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”) under which eligible employees may elect to have up to the lesser of $25 or 10% of base compensation deducted from their payroll checks for the purchase of the Company’s common stock at 95% of the average market value on the date of purchase. The maximum number of shares which may be purchased under the ESPP is 4,550,000. The number of shares purchased under the ESPP was 7,667, 10,041 and 8,834 in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The Company received cash proceeds from the purchase of these shares of $344, $393 and $463 in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. As of December 31, 2021, 243,121 additional shares may be purchased.

The 2014 Barnes Group Stock and Incentive Award Plan (the “2014 Plan”) was approved on May 9, 2014 by the Company's stockholders. The 2014 Plan permits the issuance of incentive awards, stock option grants and stock appreciation rights to eligible participants to purchase up to 6,913,978 shares of common stock. The amount includes shares available for purchase under earlier stock and incentive plans which were merged into the 2014 Plan. The 2014 Plan allows for stock options and stock appreciation rights to be issued at a ratio of 1:1 and other types of incentive awards at a ratio of 2.84:1 from the shares available for future grants. As of December 31, 2021, there were 2,488,316 shares available for future grants under the 2014 Plan, inclusive of Shares Reacquired and shares made available through 2021 forfeitures. As of December 31, 2021, there were 1,218,470 shares of common stock outstanding to be issued upon the exercise of stock options and the vesting of Rights.

Rights under the 2014 Plan entitle the holder to receive, without payment, one share of the Company’s common stock after the expiration of the vesting period. Certain of these Rights are also subject to the satisfaction of established performance goals. Additionally, holders of certain Rights are credited with dividend equivalents, which are converted into additional Rights, and holders of certain restricted stock units are paid dividend equivalents in cash when dividends are paid to other stockholders. All Rights have a vesting period of up to five years.

Under the Non-Employee Director Deferred Stock Plan, as amended, each non-employee director who joined the Board of Directors prior to December 15, 2005 was granted the right to receive 12,000 shares of the Company’s common stock upon retirement. In 2021, 2020 and 2019, $19, $21 and $22, respectively, of dividend equivalents were paid in cash related to these shares. There was no compensation cost related to this plan in 2021, 2020 or 2019. There are 28,800 shares reserved for issuance under this plan.

Total maximum shares reserved for issuance under all stock plans aggregated 3,978,707 at December 31, 2021.