What Counts as a Good 401k Match? 17 Big Employers Say 5% of Pay

Two job offers arrive in the same week, and their benefits pages use different formulas. A good 401k match in 2026 is about 5% of your pay or more. That is the median across 17 large US employers we checked, and anything from 6% up puts a plan in the top half of our sample.

Every figure below comes from the company’s own benefits page or from a filing with the SEC, checked on 31 October 2026. Each one is linked, so you can check it against your own plan.

What We Found

Across 17 large US employers whose 401(k) match formulas we checked on 31 October 2026, the median maximum match for an employee earning $100,000 is 5% of pay, ranging from 0.5% at Costco to 12.25% at Microsoft.

Twelve of the 17 match at least 5% of pay. Seven match 6% or more. The middle of the range is crowded: Target, Starbucks, Bank of America, JPMorganChase and CVS Health all land on exactly 5%.

The formulas behind those numbers vary far more than the numbers do. Chevron pays 8% of pay to anyone who saves 2%. Home Depot pays 3.5% to anyone who saves 5%. Microsoft and NVIDIA match in dollars, which makes their plans worth most to people who can save the most.

What Is a 401k Match?

A 401k match is money your employer adds to your 401(k) account when you contribute from your own pay. The plan sets a formula, such as 100% of what you save up to 5% of salary. Save less than the formula covers and you leave part of the match unclaimed. Save more and the match stops growing.

The match is usually written in two parts. The rate is how many cents the company adds for each dollar you put in. The ceiling is the share of your pay, or the dollar amount, beyond which it stops matching.

Multiply the two and you get the maximum 401k match as a percent of pay, which is the figure we calculated for every employer in the table.

The 17 Employers Side by Side

Dollar-capped plans are worth a different share of pay at every salary, so we calculated all 17 at a salary of $100,000. For the 14 plans that match a percentage of pay, the result is the same at most salaries. Only near the top do plan caps and the IRS pay cap change it.

Employer	Match formula as published	Max match, % of pay at $100,000	Vesting as stated	Source
Microsoft	50% of every dollar up to the IRS deferral limit ($24,500 in 2026)	12.25%	Immediate	Microsoft US Benefits
NVIDIA	100% of the first $6,000, 50% of the next $11,000, capped at $11,500	11.5%	Not stated	NVIDIA Benefits
Chevron	Contribute 2% of pay, Chevron contributes 8%	8%	Immediate	Chevron ESIP
ExxonMobil	Matches the minimum 6% contribution with 7% of eligible pay	7%	After 3 years	Form 11-K, 2024
Walmart	Each dollar matched, up to 6% of eligible pay	6%	Not stated	Walmart
Wells Fargo	100% of deferrals up to 6%, after one year of service	6%	3-year cliff for hires since 2021	Form 11-K, 2025
Verizon	“6% company match”	6%	Not stated	Verizon careers
Target	Dollar for dollar up to 5% of eligible pay	5%	Immediate	Target fact sheet
Starbucks	100% of the first 5% of eligible pay, each pay period	5%	Immediate	Starbucks Benefits
Bank of America	Match of up to 5% of eligible pay, plus a 2% to 3% annual contribution	5%	Immediate	Form 11-K, 2025
JPMorganChase	100% up to 5% of eligible pay, after one year, employed at year end	5%	After 3 years	Form 11-K, 2025
CVS Health	100% up to 5% of eligible pay, each payroll, after one year	5%	Immediate	Form 11-K, 2025
AMD	75% of contributions up to 6% of eligible pay	4.5%	Not stated	Form 10-K, 2025
Ford (salaried)	$0.90 per dollar, up to 5% of base salary	4.5%	3 years after hire	Form 11-K, 2025
Lowe’s	100% of the first 3%, 50% of the next 2%, 25% of the next 1%	4.25%	Immediate	Form 11-K, 2022
Home Depot	150% of the first 1%, 50% of the next 2% to 5%	3.5%	3-year cliff	Form 11-K, 2025
Costco	50 cents per dollar on the first $1,000, maximum $500 a year	0.5%	Not stated	Costco benefits

The table counts the match only. Several of these employers add money that has nothing to do with what you save, and we come back to that below, because it changes how Costco and Ford compare.

How Do You Read a Match Formula?

Read a match formula by finding two numbers: the rate the company pays on each dollar, and the ceiling where matching stops. Multiply them. “50% of contributions up to 6% of pay” means a 3% maximum match, and you need to save 6% to collect all of it.

Most plans in our sample are that simple. AMD’s annual report says the company “matches 75% of employees’ contributions up to 6% of their eligible compensation”. That is 0.75 times 6%, or 4.5% of pay.

Tiered formulas take longer. Lowe’s plan filing describes 100% of the first 3%, 50% of the next 2% and 25% of the next 1%. Work each tier on its own and add them: 3% plus 1% plus 0.25% gives 4.25% of pay for a 6% contribution.

Home Depot pays 150% on the first 1% you save, then 50% on the band from 2% to 5%. We read that band as four percentage points, which gives 1.5% plus 2%, a total of 3.5%. If your formula has a band that could be read two ways, ask HR to give you the maximum match in dollars for your salary.

Then there is Chevron, the outlier at the generous end. Its savings plan page says: “If you contribute 2 percent of your regular pay, Chevron contributes an amount equal to 8 percent of your regular pay.” That is four dollars for every one you save, the best rate in our sample by a distance.

Dollar caps work differently. Microsoft matches 50% of every dollar up to the IRS limit, so someone who saves the full $24,500 gets $12,250. NVIDIA tops out at $11,500. Both are generous, but only if you can afford to save $24,500 or $17,000 a year. On a $100,000 salary, that is a quarter or a sixth of gross pay.

Of the 14 plans that match a share of pay, 12 say how much you must save to collect the whole match. In every one of the 12, the answer is 6% of pay or less. Verizon’s careers page and Bank of America’s filing give the ceiling but not the rate.

Paste your own plan summary into an AI assistant, ChatGPT or one of the tools in our guide to the best ChatGPT alternative, and ask it to restate the formula as a percent of your pay. Then check the multiplication yourself.

What Is a True-Up, and Why Does It Matter?

A true-up is an extra payment some plans make after the year ends, topping your match up to what the annual formula promised. It matters when the match is calculated each pay period. If you reach the IRS limit by October, those plans stop matching for November and December unless the plan trues up.

Five plans in our sample say the match is worked out per pay period. Starbucks matches the first 5% of pay “you contribute each pay period”. CVS Health matches “per payroll”. Lowe’s makes its match “each payroll period”. NVIDIA matches “every pay period” on its first tier. Bank of America allocates its match per pay period too.

Only one of the five says what happens at year end. Bank of America’s plan filing says “An end of year ‘true-up’ matching contribution is also provided.” The other four pages are silent on it.

That only bites if you front-load. A $100,000 earner saving 5% is nowhere near $24,500 and gets every period’s match. Someone on $300,000 who sets a 20% deferral to max out early is the person at risk. Before you raise your rate, ask HR one question: does the plan true up the match at year end?

JPMorganChase avoids the problem by paying the match once a year, and attaches a condition to it. Its plan filing says the participant must be “employed by JPMorgan Chase at the end of the calendar year,” unless certain conditions are met. Wells Fargo’s filing asks for employment on 15 December. Leave in November and you can lose the whole year’s match.

If you are about to resign, check the year-end rule before you set a date. Our guide on how to negotiate salary covers how to ask a new employer to cover a match you forfeit by leaving.

How Long Until the Match Is Yours?

Your own contributions are always yours. The match may not be. Vesting is the schedule that decides when the company’s money becomes yours to keep, and the IRS describes a cliff schedule that vests fully at year 3 and a graded one that vests fully at year 6.

In our sample, seven employers vest the match immediately: Chevron, Microsoft, Target, Starbucks, Bank of America, CVS Health and Lowe’s. Five make you wait three years: ExxonMobil, JPMorganChase, Ford, Home Depot, and Wells Fargo for anyone hired since 1 January 2021. The other five pages we read do not state a vesting rule.

A three-year wait changes the value of an offer. If you expect to move on within two years, a 7% match that vests at three is worth less to you than a 5% match that vests on day one. Count only the money you will still have when you leave.

Waiting periods work the same way. JPMorganChase, Wells Fargo and CVS Health start matching after one year of service. Home Depot starts after a year and 1,000 hours, or two years. Starbucks says partners with 90 days of service are generally eligible. A year with no match is a year at 0%, whatever the formula says.

The 2026 IRS Limits That Cap Your Match

The IRS announced that the 2026 limit on what you can defer into a 401(k) rises to $24,500, up from $23,500 for 2025. The catch-up limit for savers aged 50 and over rises to $8,000. For those aged 60 to 63, the higher catch-up limit stays at $11,250.

The limit that includes your employer’s money is higher. The IRS page on 401(k) contribution limits sets total annual additions, your deferrals plus the match plus any other employer money, at $72,000 in 2026, or $80,000 with catch-up contributions. It also caps the pay a plan can count at $360,000.

That pay cap is why percent-of-pay matches flatten out at the top. On a 5% match, the most anyone can receive is 5% of $360,000, or $18,000, however much they earn. JPMorganChase goes further: for total cash pay between $350,000 and $999,999 it caps the match at $10,000, and at $1,000,000 or more it pays none.

Is Your 401k Match Good Enough?

A 401k match of 5% of pay is typical for a large US employer, going by our sample, and 6% or more puts a plan in the top half. Below 4%, ask what else the company pays into the plan, because some low matches sit on top of large automatic contributions.

Costco is the clearest case. Its match is small: 50 cents per dollar on the first $1,000, or $500 a year. But its benefits page also describes an annual company contribution “based on a percentage of eligible earnings” that rises with years of service. The page gives no percentage, so it is missing from our table, and the 0.5% understates the plan.

Ford’s salaried plan works the same way. On top of the 4.5% match, the filing describes non-elective contributions of 3.5% to 5.5% of base salary depending on age, for employees hired since 2004. Bank of America adds 2% a year, 3% after ten years. JPMorganChase pays automatic pay credits to employees on less than $350,000.

So when you judge a 401k match, compare total employer money first, then vesting, then the formula. A plan that pays 4.5% matched plus 5% automatic beats a plain 7% match, as long as you stay long enough to keep it.

A company’s business mission statement may promise to invest in its people. The 401k match tells you how many cents per dollar that promise is worth.

It is a transactional deal in the plainest sense: you do one thing, the company pays a fixed amount. Our piece on transactional leadership explains why simple exchanges like this one move behaviour so reliably. Our guide to leadership theories sets that exchange beside the other models managers use.

What to Do With the Match You Have

Save at least enough to collect the full match. On the formulas in our sample, that means 6% of pay or less in every plan that states it. Skipping it is a pay cut you chose, and our review of The Art of Thinking Clearly covers the thinking errors behind choices like this one, including the pull of a small reward now over a larger one later.

After the match, the next dollar has choices. Our guide to IRA vs 401k covers when an IRA beats more 401(k) saving, and our piece on Roth vs traditional IRA covers the tax choice that comes with it. If you work for a hospital, school or charity, read 403b vs 401k first, because your plan may carry a different name.

When you weigh a job offer, put the match into the total. Our guide to the compensation package shows how to add up salary, bonus, equity and benefits. A 6% match on $100,000 is $6,000 a year, and it is easier to ask for a better plan before you sign than after.

Founder stories, like the ones in our list of Elon Musk books, celebrate the equity that made a few people rich. For most employees, the matched 401(k) is the equity that pays out, a few hundred dollars a month at a time.

If you run your own business, there is no match unless you pay it yourself. Our guides to solo 401k vs SEP IRA and sole proprietorship vs LLC cover how owners set up both the business and its retirement plan.

Benefits beyond the 401(k) are worth reading in the same way. If your employer funds tuition, our guide to online universities for working adults covers the schools that fit around a full working week. A long career needs the body to last as well, and our pieces on a morning exercise routine and on whether women need more sleep than men cover that side of the plan.

How We Did This

On 31 October 2026 we looked up the 401(k) matching formula of well-known large US employers on the company’s own benefits or careers page, or in the plan’s latest Form 11-K or the company’s 10-K filed with the SEC. We kept 17 companies whose fetched page stated the formula, and dropped those whose pages gave no formula or would not load, including Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Intel. We counted the match only, excluding non-elective and profit-sharing contributions, and calculated each maximum at a $100,000 salary. Lowe’s figure comes from its 2022 plan filing and ExxonMobil’s from 2024, the latest we could fetch. The full dataset is available on request.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good 401k match?

Across the 17 large US employers we checked, the median maximum match is 5% of pay, and seven of them match 6% or more. Anything at or above 5% is typical for a big employer. Check vesting and any automatic employer contribution before you judge a lower number.

How much should I contribute to get the full match?

Whatever your plan’s ceiling is. In our sample, every percent-of-pay plan that states the figure needs 6% of pay or less: 2% at Chevron, 5% at Target, Starbucks and CVS Health, and 6% at Walmart, Wells Fargo and ExxonMobil. Dollar-capped plans such as Microsoft’s need more.

Do I lose my 401(k) match if I leave?

You keep your own contributions. You keep the match only once it has vested. Seven employers in our sample vest immediately and five make you wait three years. Some plans, such as JPMorganChase’s, also require you to be employed at year end to receive that year’s match.

The formula on the benefits page is the start of the sum. The money you keep depends on how much you save, how long you stay and the date you choose to leave.