Lowe's Companies, Inc. 401(k): Principal, match 4.25% max
Lowe's 401(k) Plan · LOW · CIK 60667
Principal 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.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
4.25%
Lowe's Companies, Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 2% of pay, then 25% of the next 1% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4.25% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 24, 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 Lowe's puts in, and what the plan costs
What Lowe's put into the plan, per active participant
$741
Lowe's Companies, Inc. put $741 into this plan for each of its 263,650 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.
Lowe's put in more per active participant than 53% of plans with 5,000+ participants in retail. The middle plan in that group of 196 reported $700. Retail comes from business code 444110, which Lowe's 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 Lowe's 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 560578072, plan 003 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $741 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Lowe's Companies, Inc. also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,104 a year at a $49,500 salary. 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 Lowe's puts in
$2,104
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company makes a matching contribution (the Company Match) each payroll period to each participant’s account equal to: 100% of the first 3% of deferral compensation each participant elects to have contributed to the Plan, plus 50% of the next 2% of deferral compensation contributed to the Plan, plus 25% of the next 1% of deferral compensation contributed to the Plan. Catch-up contributions are eligible for Company Match in accordance with this formula.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 6% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,970 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
100 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 48% 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: 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Vesting – Each participant shall at all times have a 100% vested interest in the balance of their account.”
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
2nd percentile
$3.57 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 98% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Lowe's 401(k) match formula?
Lowe's 401(k) employer match tops out at 4.25% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll. A tiered formula pays its best rate on the first slice of pay and less on the next, which is how the rate steps down.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay |
|---|---|
| then | 50% of the next 2% of pay |
| then | 25% of the next 1% of pay |
| Maximum employer match | 4.25% of compensation |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Conditions | Catch-up contributions are eligible for Company Match in accordance with this formula |
At a $90,000 salary, contributing 6% ($5,400) earns the full employer match of $3,825 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company makes a matching contribution (the Company Match) each payroll period to each participant’s account equal to: 100% of the first 3% of deferral compensation each participant elects to have contributed to the Plan, plus 50% of the next 2% of deferral compensation contributed to the Plan, plus 25% of the next 1% of deferral compensation contributed to the Plan. Catch-up contributions are eligible for Company Match in accordance with this formula.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Lowe's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Lowe's vests the employer match immediately: 100% is yours as soon as it is paid in. Nothing is forfeited when you leave, which is not true of the two schedules that vest over time.
| Employer match vesting | Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
Vesting, word for word
“Vesting – Each participant shall at all times have a 100% vested interest in the balance of their account.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Lowe's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Lowe's does not enroll employees automatically: the filing states the plan has no automatic enrollment.
| Plan entry | Employees of the Plan Sponsor and ADG are eligible to participate on the first day of the month following 30 days after the employee's original hire date |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | No: the filing states the plan has no automatic enrollment |
Eligibility, word for word
“Employees of the Plan Sponsor and ADG are eligible to participate in the Plan on the first day of the month following 30 days after the employee’s original hire date.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Eligible employees must make an active election to participate in the Plan.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 24, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Principal, filed as “PRINCIPAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY”. 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.
5,239 plans on file name Principal as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 5,230 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $170.05 per participant.
Participants log in at Principal ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Principal or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Principal |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 420127290 |
What does the Lowe's plan report on Form 5500?
The Lowe's plan reported $8.6B in assets and 318,750 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $8,584,946,338 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 318,750 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $3.57 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $3.57 per participant. The median across plans in retail is $93.99, from the 2,177 of 2,305 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Lowes 401(k) Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Lowe's 401(k) match compare?
Lowe's Companies, Inc.'s maximum 401(k) match of 4.25% 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 retail, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in retail.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in retail.
Maximum match 3.75% of pay. Also in retail.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Principal.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Principal.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Lowe's.
Compare Lowe's Companies, Inc. with any company, side by side
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 24, 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 Lowe's Companies, Inc.'s 401(k) match?
Lowe's Companies, Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 2% of pay, then 25% of the next 1% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4.25% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Lowe's Companies, Inc. 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Lowe's Companies, Inc.'s 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
No: the filing states the plan has no automatic enrollment.
Who is the recordkeeper for Lowe's Companies, Inc.'s 401(k)?
Principal is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Lowes 401(k) 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 Lowe's Companies, 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 | Lowe's Companies, Inc. |
| SEC CIK | 60667 |
| Accession number | 0000060667-26-000101 |
| Plan | Lowe's 401(k) Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 24, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Lowe's Companies, 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, “Lowe's Companies, Inc. 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000060667-26-000101, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
