GRAY MEDIA, INC 401(k): Empower, match 4% max
Gray Media 401(k) Savings Plan · GTN · CIK 43196
Empower is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for Gray Television, Inc. Capital Accumulation Plan, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
4%
GRAY MEDIA, INC matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 2% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4% of pay.
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 GRAY MEDIA puts in, and what the plan costs
What GRAY MEDIA put into the plan, per active participant
$4,454
GRAY MEDIA, INC put $4,454 into this plan for each of its 8,554 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.
GRAY MEDIA put in more per active participant than 59% of plans with 5,000+ participants in media, telecom and information. The middle plan in that group of 62 reported $3,707. Media, telecom and information comes from business code 515100, which GRAY MEDIA 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.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
What this figure cannot separate: how much GRAY MEDIA 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 580285030, plan 003 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $4,454 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. GRAY MEDIA, INC also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $1,980 a year at a $49,500 salary, and the same filing states employer contributions made outside the match. That second figure is what the formula pays one worker on that salary, and not an amount either filing reports. The two figures cover different plan years and measure different things, so neither one is the other one corrected.
What GRAY MEDIA puts in
$1,980
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“Effective as of January 1, 2025, a Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangement (QACA) Matching Contribution shall be made on behalf of each Participant for the Plan Year equal to100 percent (100%) of each Participant’s Deferred Compensation up to three percent (3%) of Compensation, and fifty percent (50%) of each Participant’s Deferred Compensation that exceeds three percent (3%) but does not exceed five percent (5%) of Compensation.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 5% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,475 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
71.43 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 32% 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%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Employer QACA matching contributions are 100% vested after 2 years.”
The plan tops the match up after year end, so contributing unevenly through the year does not cost the worker part of it.
The same match paragraph, word for word
“Effective as of January 1, 2025, a Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangement (QACA) Matching Contribution shall be made on behalf of each Participant for the Plan Year equal to100 percent (100%) of each Participant’s Deferred Compensation up to three percent (3%) of Compensation, and fifty percent (50%) of each Participant’s Deferred Compensation that exceeds three percent (3%) but does not exceed five percent (5%) of Compensation.”
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
86th percentile
$110.51 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 86% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is GRAY MEDIA's 401(k) match formula?
GRAY MEDIA's 401(k) employer match tops out at 4% of pay. The plan pays an annual true-up. What an annual true-up repays is the arithmetic behind that line: it matters most in a year when contributions land unevenly.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay |
|---|---|
| then | 50% of the next 2% of pay |
| Maximum employer match | 4% of compensation |
| True-upA year-end recalculation that repays match lost to uneven contributions. | Yes, annual true-up |
| Conditions | Matching contribution amount may vary for employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, depending on the terms of the agreement (e.g., the SAG-AFTRA/WFSB-TV3 Anchor and Reporter Units agreement ratified October 31, 2023 fixes covered employees' 401(k) benefit at the levels in effect April 1, 2023). A true-up matching contribution is issued after plan-year end, no later than September 15 of the following year, for participants who reached the contribution limit within the plan year. |
| Current formula effective | January 1, 2025 |
| Other employer contribution | Discretionary profit-sharing contribution, as determined by declaration of the Board of Directors, based on years of service and eligible compensation; none was made for the year ended December 31, 2025 |
At a $45,000 salary, contributing 5% ($2,250) earns the full employer match of $1,800 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“Effective as of January 1, 2025, a Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangement (QACA) Matching Contribution shall be made on behalf of each Participant for the Plan Year equal to100 percent (100%) of each Participant’s Deferred Compensation up to three percent (3%) of Compensation, and fifty percent (50%) of each Participant’s Deferred Compensation that exceeds three percent (3%) but does not exceed five percent (5%) of Compensation.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What is GRAY MEDIA's 401(k) vesting schedule?
GRAY MEDIA vests the employer match on a cliff schedule: nothing is yours until two years of service, then 100% at once. Leave a day early and the employer money goes back to the plan, the edge a two-year cliff creates.
| Employer match vesting | Cliff: 100% vested after 2 years of service |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Other employer contributions | Discretionary profit-sharing contributions are 100% vested after 3 years. |
Vesting, word for word
“Employer QACA matching contributions are 100% vested after 2 years.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 25, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join GRAY MEDIA's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
GRAY MEDIA enrolls new hires automatically at 3% of pay, rising 1% a year.
| Plan entry | An employee is eligible to participate in the Plan beginning the first of the month following or coinciding with the date that he has completed 500 hours of service during his initial six months of employment. If an employee does not complete 500 hours of service during his initial six months of employment, then he is eligible to participate beginning the first of the month following or coinciding with the date he has completed one year of service. |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr |
Eligibility, word for word
“An employee is eligible to participate in the Plan beginning the first of the month following or coinciding with the date that he has completed 500 hours of service during his initial six months of employment.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“If no deferral election is made, the participant shall be automatically enrolled in the Plan and will be deemed to have authorized the Company to defer 3% of the participant’s compensation to the Plan on a before-tax basis. Contribution percentages auto escalate by 1% each year if a participant does not change the contribution percentage from the default percentage.”
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 Empower, filed as “EMPOWER ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY O”. 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.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer. The Form 5500 read here was filed for Gray Television, Inc. Capital Accumulation Plan.
7,876 plans on file name Empower as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 7,813 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $165.72 per participant.
Participants log in at Empower ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Empower or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Empower |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper address | 8515 East Orchard Road, Greenwood Village, CO 80111 |
What does the GRAY MEDIA plan report on Form 5500?
The GRAY MEDIA plan reported $657.1M in assets and 11,574 participants for plan year 2024.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
| Plan named in the DOL record | Gray Television, Inc. Capital Accumulation Plan |
|---|---|
| Total plan assets | $657,120,189 |
| Participants | 11,574 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $110.51 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $110.51 per participant. The median across plans in media, telecom and information is $121.00, from the 1,035 of 1,108 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
How does GRAY MEDIA's 401(k) match compare?
GRAY MEDIA, INC's maximum 401(k) match of 4% of pay compares with a median of 4% across the 269 companies in our data with a computable formula.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in media, telecom and information, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in media, telecom and information.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in media, telecom and information.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in media, telecom and information.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Empower.
Maximum match 0.25% of pay. Same 2-year cliff as GRAY MEDIA.
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 GRAY MEDIA, INC's 401(k) match?
Gray Media, Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 2% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the GRAY MEDIA, INC 401(k) match vest?
Cliff: 100% vested after 2 years of service.
Does GRAY MEDIA, INC's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr.
Who is the recordkeeper for GRAY MEDIA, INC's 401(k)?
Empower is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Gray Television, Inc. Capital Accumulation 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. Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
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 GRAY MEDIA, INC 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 | GRAY MEDIA, INC |
| SEC CIK | 43196 |
| Accession number | 0001193125-26-282987 |
| Plan | Gray Media 401(k) Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 25, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with GRAY MEDIA, INC, 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, “GRAY MEDIA, INC 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001193125-26-282987, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
