Cintas Corporation 401(k): Alight, match fully vested after 5 years
Cintas Partners' Plan · CTAS · CIK 723254
Alight is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for this plan, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
The 401(k) employer match
Set again each year
Cintas Corporation sets its 401(k) match at its own discretion each year, and this filing does not state the rate.
From the Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026 ↗, covering the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Page data last updated July 28, 2026, when the Form 5500 bulk data was last refreshed. Why filings lag
On this page: what the employer actually paid in · the formula, word for word · when the money becomes yours · who can join · who holds your account · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
What Cintas puts in, and what the plan costs
What Cintas put into the plan, per active participant
$2,417
Cintas Corporation put $2,417 into this plan for each of its 47,026 active participants in plan year 2024. This is the whole employer side of the plan: matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions, and reallocated forfeitures. The Form 5500 does not separate them, so this is what the employer put in and not the match.
Cintas put in more per active participant than 81% of plans with 5,000+ participants in other services. The middle plan in that group of 38 reported $871. Other services comes from business code 812330, which Cintas 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 Cintas 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: DOL Form 5500 for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, EIN 311188630, plan 006 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What Cintas puts in
Not stated in the filing
The match rate is set at the company's discretion each year, and the filing does not state the rate it used.
The Form 5500 for this plan reports what Cintas actually paid in: the figure and its peer comparison are above. It is the whole employer side of the plan on one line, so it answers what went in rather than what the formula promises.
Two places state the terms in full: your plan’s Summary Plan Description, which your employer must provide on request, and your recordkeeper’s site, which for this plan is Alight ↗.
What you contribute to collect all of it
Not stated in the filing
The filing does not state the contribution rate that collects the full employer contribution.
Vesting score
45.71 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 2% of the 369 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: 0%, 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Employee pretax contributions, rollover contributions, and Plan earnings thereon vest immediately. Participants’ vesting for their balances in the ESOP contributions account and profit-sharing contributions account are 100% vested after three years of vesting service, with no partial vesting. A Participant is vested in his or her Company matching contribution account with the following schedule: Years of Vesting Service Percent Vested Fewer than 2 years 0% 2 years but fewer than 3 years 20% 3 years but fewer than 4 years 40% 4 years but fewer than 5 years 60% 5 years or more 100%”
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
52nd percentile
$56.50 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 52% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Cintas' 401(k) match formula?
Cintas sets its 401(k) match at its own discretion each year and does not state the rate in this filing. The match is deposited once a year. A discretionary match is set again each year, so the rate in force lives in the plan document rather than the filing. The four shapes a formula takes is what to look for when you read one.
| Deposited | Once a year |
|---|---|
| Conditions | Company contributions are allocated following the end of the Company's fiscal year (May 31) to Participants credited with at least 1,000 hours of service during the preceding Plan year who are employed on the last business day of the fiscal year. |
| Other employer contribution | Profit-sharing contributions at the discretion of the Board of Directors, allocated by a point system based on compensation and years of service |
| Other employer contribution | ESOP contributions at the discretion of the Board of Directors, allocated by the same point system and invested in Company common stock |
| Other employer contribution | Special allocation of profit-sharing contributions to salaried and hourly non-exempt Participants at the Company's sole discretion (2020 amendment) |
What the filing says, word for word
“At its discretion, the Board of Directors of the Company may authorize a matching contribution of the Participants’ pretax contributions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Cintas' 401(k) vesting schedule?
Cintas vests the employer match on a graded schedule: 20% after two years, rising to 100% after five. Each step is money that leaves with you that year, which is how a graded schedule differs from a cliff.
| Employer match vesting | Graded: 20% at 2 yr, 40% at 3 yr, 60% at 4 yr, 100% at 5 yr |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Other employer contributions | ESOP contributions account and profit-sharing contributions account are 100% vested after three years of vesting service, with no partial vesting |
Vesting, word for word
“Employee pretax contributions, rollover contributions, and Plan earnings thereon vest immediately. Participants’ vesting for their balances in the ESOP contributions account and profit-sharing contributions account are 100% vested after three years of vesting service, with no partial vesting. A Participant is vested in his or her Company matching contribution account with the following schedule: Years of Vesting Service Percent Vested Fewer than 2 years 0% 2 years but fewer than 3 years 20% 3 years but fewer than 4 years 40% 4 years but fewer than 5 years 60% 5 years or more 100%”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Cintas' 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Cintas enrolls new hires automatically at 3% of pay.
| Plan entry | Generally eligible for the tax-deferred contribution portion after three months of service; eligible for all other portions of the Plan after reaching 1,000 hours of service |
|---|---|
| Match eligibility | Company contribution allocations require at least 1,000 hours of service during the preceding Plan year and employment on the last business day of the Company's fiscal year (May 31) |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; default investment: T. Rowe Price Target Date Fund corresponding to the Participant's age |
Eligibility, word for word
“The Participants are generally eligible to participate in the tax-deferred contribution portion of the Plan after three months of service at which time Participants are automatically enrolled, unless they affirmatively decline to participate. The Participants are eligible to participate in all other portions of the Plan after reaching 1,000 hours of service. Eligible Participants will receive an allocation of the Company’s contributions following the end of the Company’s fiscal year (May 31), provided they are credited with at least 1,000 hours of service during the preceding Plan year and are employed by the Company on the last business day of the Company’s fiscal year (May 31).”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“If no election is made, a participant is automatically enrolled at 3%. The automatic contribution will be invested in the Plan’s default fund (the T. Rowe Price Target Date Fund that corresponds to the Participant’s age at the time the 401(k) Contribution is made) if no other investment elections have been made.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Alight, filed as “ALIGHT SOLUTIONS LLC”. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to. The trustee that holds the plan’s assets can be a different company, and this filing does not name it.
46 plans on file name Alight as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 46 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $87.90 per participant.
Participants log in at Alight, find your HR website ↗. Alight runs a separate site for each employer, so that page asks which employer you work for first. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Alight or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Alight |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 821061233 |
What does the Cintas plan report on Form 5500?
The Cintas plan reported $4.1B in assets and 70,256 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $4,072,074,940 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 70,256 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $56.50 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $56.50 per participant. The median across plans in other services is $105.46, from the 1,892 of 1,999 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Cintas Partners' Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Cintas' 401(k) match compare?
Cintas Corporation's filing does not state a maximum 401(k) match as a share of pay. Across the 269 companies in our data that do, the median is 4% of pay.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, two report the same recordkeeper and four vest on the same schedule.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Alight.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Alight.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also fully vested after 5 years, like Cintas.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also fully vested after 5 years, like Cintas.
Maximum match 1% of pay. Also fully vested after 5 years, like Cintas.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 5 years. Also fully vested after 5 years, like Cintas.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR. Every match fact on this page comes from it.
- Changed jobs? Find an old 401(k) ↗
The Department of Labor's Retirement Savings Lost & Found, a free government database.
- This year's IRS contribution limits ↗
The official deferral and catch-up limits every formula operates under.
Questions this filing answers
What is Cintas Corporation's 401(k) match?
Cintas Corporation's employer match rate is set at the sponsor's discretion and is not disclosed in the 11-K for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Cintas Corporation's Form 5500 for plan year 2024 reports $2,417 of employer money per active participant. This is the whole employer side of the plan: matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions, and reallocated forfeitures. The Form 5500 does not separate them, so this is what the employer put in and not the match.
When does the Cintas Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Graded: 20% at 2 yr, 40% at 3 yr, 60% at 4 yr, 100% at 5 yr.
Does Cintas Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; default investment: T. Rowe Price Target Date Fund corresponding to the Participant's age.
Who is the recordkeeper for Cintas Corporation's 401(k)?
Alight is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Cintas Partners' Plan for plan year 2024. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to.
Source
The match formula, the vesting schedule and the enrollment rules on this page were read from one document: the Form 11-K annual report that Cintas Corporation filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each of those fields carries the filing sentence it was read from, expandable where the field appears. Nothing on this page was supplied by the employer to this site.
The plan assets, the participant counts, the plan-paid fees and the recordkeeper come from a different document, the plan’s DOL Form 5500 annual return, and the section that reports them links it. Comparisons with other employers are computed across the filings named in the section they appear in.
Read the filing on SEC EDGAR ↗
| Document | Form 11-K annual report |
|---|---|
| Filed with | US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) |
| Filed by | Cintas Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 723254 |
| Accession number | 0000723254-26-000023 |
| Plan | Cintas Partners' Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 25, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Cintas Corporation, with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with this plan’s recordkeeper, and publishes this page without their involvement. It republishes a public filing and says where it came from.
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, “Cintas Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000723254-26-000023, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
