Workplace 401(k) accounts have become critical to retirement security, and with good reason. The majority of private sector workers have access to these plans, which are easy to enroll in and come with generous tax breaks. In fact, a growing number of plans actually enroll workers by default unless they opt out, making retirement savings the new norm in many workplaces.
Of course, 401(k)s offer more than just a simple signup process, automatic contributions from paychecks, and a streamlined mix of investment options to choose from. Many also come with employer matching contributions, which can be incredibly valuable as companies provide free money to help boost your retirement savings with each eligible contribution you make.
Matching contributions refer to money that your employer puts into your 401(k) when you invest your own funds.
Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
Be a smarter, better informed investor.
Save up to 74%
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more – straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice – straight to your e-mail.
Some companies are far more generous with their matching contributions than others, as recent research shows. Let’s take a look at some of the U.S. companies doing the most to help their workers achieve retirement success. We’ll also examine details about average 401(k) matches so you can see how your own company’s offerings compare.
These are the U.S. companies with the most generous 401(k) matching contributions
Recent research from Carry, a solo 401(k) plan provider, revealed the companies in the United States that were most generous in providing employer 401(k) contributions to staff. Carry evaluated companies based on many factors, including:
Match type: Some companies offer a full match or a dollar-for-dollar match, so if you contribute $1,000, they do the same. Others offer a partial match, for example, providing 50% or 75% of the amount you contribute. Still others make non-elective contributions or simply put money into your account regardless of whether you do the same.
Maximum match: Most companies establish a maximum contribution (which may be lower than the annual 401(k) contribution limit the IRS sets). This limit could be a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of your salary (for example, your employer may match 100% of contributions up to 4% of your salary).
Eligibility: Some companies require you to work for the business for a certain amount of time before you become eligible for matching contributions, such as a month or a year.
Vesting period: This determines when your matching funds are yours to keep, even if you leave your job. Some companies offer immediate vesting, so if an employer contributes to your 401(k) today, you can keep the money if you leave tomorrow. Others have graded vesting schedules, so your actual ownership stake in your employer’s contributions grows over time (your own contributions are always 100% vested from day one).
The table below ranks the top 20 companies in terms of the value of matching contributions, considering all of these relevant factors.
Source: Carry.com
Tech, biotech and financial services companies are, not surprisingly, included in this list of the top twenty. They often have to compete for talent, resulting in the need for attractive benefits packages.
One of the surprises here is Dollar General, where the average annual compensation was recently estimated at $32,000 per year by Zippia. A generous 401(k) plan with a 25% match, which applies to both full-time and part-time employees, may be the company’s way of compensating for the lower salaries typically associated with the retail industry, thereby encouraging employee loyalty.
How does your 401(k) match compare?
Every worker would love a dollar-for-dollar match equal to 25% of their compensation, which they become eligible for on day one and which vests immediately!
With this matching structure, if you made $100,000 per year and contributed the maximum $23,500 contribution (the employee contribution limit for those under 50 in 2025), you could effectively earn an extra $23,500 from your employer’s matching contributions this year — which would be yours to keep even if you left your job the day your last contribution came in.
Of course, such a generous match is not available to most of us, though. In fact, Vanguard’s new How America Saves report reveals what the typical match looks like, and it is much less generous — although, of course, still worth claiming. According to Vanguard, these are the most common characteristics of 401(k) match programs.
- Half of all Vanguard plans offered only an employer matching contribution.
- 36% of plans provided a matching and non-matching employer contribution (referred to above as a non-elective contribution).
- 10% of plans offered only a non-matching contribution.
Consider our $100,000 worker again. If they earned a match worth just $0.50 per dollar on the first 6% of pay, the total match they’d be eligible for would be $3,000, and they’d have to contribute $6,000 to get it. And, how much of this the worker gets to keep would depend on his vesting schedule, as well as how soon he leaves work.
The good news is, close to half of all plans did offer immediate vesting of employer matching contributions, and five out of 10 plan participants were enrolled in plans offering immediate vesting.
Still, this means a substantial number of employees did need to wait longer to own their matching funds, with one in our plans using either a five or six year graded vesting schedule. The data below shows more details on how different plans treat the vesting issue.
Among employers offering matching funds, the average match was 4.6% of pay, and the median match was 4%. Among plans with non-elective contributions, the average contribution was 5.3% of pay, while the median was 4.5%.
Our $100,000 earner, who received the average match and no non-elective contributions, would have thus been able to earn just $4,600 in matching funds from their employer, assuming they contributed enough to earn the full match.
Most employers also did not offer a dollar-for-dollar match. The most common formula used was $0.50 per dollar on the first 6% of pay, while the table below shows the matching formulas used among all plans.
Here is how Vanguard characterizes the most common match formulas.
For employers offering other contributions, 43% gave employees full ownership immediately, while 29% used a five or six-year graded vesting schedule as well.
The beauty of a 401(k) match
Now that you know about both average 401(k) plans and the most generous plans in America, you can see how yours compares. Hopefully, your company is as generous as the ones that made the top 20 list. If not, you should still claim all the matching funds you can, as doing so could make all the difference in your retirement security.
Get the full story: just how “average” are your finances?
Want to see how more of your retirement portfolio compares to peers? Read: