Packaging Corporation of America 401(k) for hourly employees: Alight
Packaging Corporation of America Thrift Plan for Hourly Employees · PKG · CIK 75677
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.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing.
The 401(k) employer match
Not stated in this filing
The Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan's Form 11-K does not state a 401(k) match formula and defers to the plan document.
The match, vesting and enrollment terms below are for hourly employees: they are read from the Packaging Corporation of America Thrift Plan for Hourly Employees. Packaging Corporation of America's Form 11-K filings for plan year 2025 describe two separate 401(k) plans. Not all of them state a match formula, so each one is listed below with the group it covers and what its filing says.
From the Form 11-K filed May 28, 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: which plan you are in · 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
Which Packaging Corporation of America 401(k) plan are you in?
Packaging Corporation of America's Form 11-K filings for this plan year describe two plans, and not all of them state a match formula. Find the plan you are in before you take a number off this page. The terms in the rest of the page are read from the Packaging Corporation of America Thrift Plan for Hourly Employees.
Packaging Corporation of America Thrift Plan for Hourly Employees (the plan this page answers for)
Hourly employees · Form 11-K ↗
Match not stated as a formula
Packaging Corporation of America Retirement Savings Plan for Salaried Employees
Salaried employees · Form 11-K ↗
5.2% of pay, at most
One row per plan, taken from the two Form 11-K reports this site has read for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each maximum comes from that plan’s own filing and describes only that plan.
What the Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan puts in, and what the plan costs
What Packaging Corporation of America put into the plan, per active participant
$4,919
Packaging Corporation of America put $4,919 into this plan for each of its 11,794 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.
Packaging Corporation of America put in more per active participant than 68% of plans with 5,000+ participants in industrial and materials manufacturing. The middle plan in that group of 178 reported $3,585. Industrial and materials manufacturing comes from business code 322100, which Packaging Corporation of America 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.
Both filings are for the Packaging Corporation of America Thrift Plan for Hourly Employees, which covers hourly employees, so this figure and the terms above describe the same group. 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 Packaging Corporation of America 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 364277050, plan 001 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What the Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan puts in
Not stated in the filing
The filing does not disclose a match formula.
The Form 5500 for this plan reports what Packaging Corporation of America 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
Not scored
The filing does not state a vesting schedule for the employer match.
A schedule this cannot read at whole-year anniversaries is left without a number rather than given a middle one.
The filing does not state a vesting schedule for the employer match.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are 100% vested immediately in the value of their contributions, earnings thereon and rollovers from other qualified plans.”
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
90th percentile
$121.76 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 90% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is the Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan's 401(k) match formula?
The Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan's Form 11-K does not disclose a 401(k) match formula and defers to the plan document. How a match formula is built sets out the parts to look for in your own plan documents.
| Conditions | The Company matching contribution rate itself is not stated in this filing; it is set by each location's Special Appendix, which is not attached to the 11-K. |
|---|---|
| Other employer contribution | The Company makes a retirement savings contribution to certain eligible employees of up to 6.5% of compensation based on years of service and/or age, as defined in the location's Special Appendix. This contribution is made on behalf of the employee regardless of whether or not the employee is contributing to the Plan. |
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company contributes on behalf of the participants a matching contribution equal to an amount detailed in each location’s Special Appendix.”
Source: Form 11-K filed May 28, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
What is the Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan's 401(k) vesting schedule?
The Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan's filing does not disclose when the employer match vests. Plans use one of three schedules, and what each one does when you leave is the part that decides how much you keep.
| Employer match vesting | Not disclosed in the filing |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | upon attainment of age 65 or termination of employment due to death or permanent disability, a participant will become 100% vested in the Company's matching contributions and retirement savings contributions |
| Other employer contributions | The Company's matching contribution and the retirement savings contribution, and earnings thereon, vest at a rate specified in each Special Appendix. |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are 100% vested immediately in the value of their contributions, earnings thereon and rollovers from other qualified plans.”
Source: Form 11-K filed May 28, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join the Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
The Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan enrolls new hires automatically; the filing does not state the default deferral rate.
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: 45-day opt-out window |
|---|
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Upon hire, eligible employees receive written notice of the automatic enrollment process into the Plan, which occurs 45 days after the date of hire. Automatic enrollment will not occur if the employee decides to enroll prior to the automatic enrollment date or if the employee opts out of participation in the Plan. Additionally, the Plan includes an automatic escalation feature that increases participants’ contribution rates over time to a maximum contribution rate of 10% unless participants opt out or elect a different rate.”
Source: Form 11-K filed May 28, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Alight, filed as “ALIGHT FINANCIAL 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.
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.
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 Packaging Corporation of America plan report on Form 5500?
The Packaging Corporation of America plan reported $1.3B in assets and 13,620 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 | Packaging Corporation Of America Thrift Plan For Hourly Employees |
|---|---|
| Total plan assets | $1,303,416,694 |
| Participants | 13,620 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $121.76 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $121.76 per participant. The median across plans in industrial and materials manufacturing is $142.19, from the 5,709 of 6,008 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
How does the Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan's 401(k) match compare?
The Packaging Corporation of America hourly plan'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
The three employers below file in industrial and materials manufacturing.
No match; the employer contributes on its own
Match vests in steps, 100% after 4 years
Employer match vests immediately
Compare Packaging Corporation of America with any company, side by side
What do Packaging Corporation of America's other 401(k) plans say?
Packaging Corporation of America Retirement Savings Plan for Salaried Employees
Salaried employees
Packaging Corporation of America matches 80% of the first 4% of pay, then 50% of the next 4% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 5.2% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
- Employer match vesting
- Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed
- Automatic enrollment
- Yes: 45-day opt-out window
What the filing says, word for word
“After six months the Company matches participant contributions on the following basis: •The first 4% of contributions are matched at a rate of 80%. •The next 4% of contributions are matched at a rate of 50%.”
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed May 28, 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 Packaging Corporation of America's 401(k) match for hourly employees?
The Packaging Corporation of America Thrift Plan for Hourly Employees covers hourly employees. Packaging Corporation of America's 11-K for the plan year ended December 31, 2025 does not disclose a match formula; it defers to the plan document and prospectus. Packaging Corporation of America's Form 5500 for plan year 2024 reports $4,919 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. 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.
When does the Packaging Corporation of America 401(k) match vest for hourly employees?
Not disclosed in the filing.
Does Packaging Corporation of America's 401(k) plan for hourly employees have automatic enrollment?
Yes: 45-day opt-out window.
Who is the recordkeeper for Packaging Corporation of America's 401(k) for hourly employees?
Alight is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Packaging Corporation Of America Thrift Plan For Hourly Employees 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 Packaging Corporation of America 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 | Packaging Corporation of America |
| SEC CIK | 75677 |
| Accession number | 0001193125-26-243403 |
| Plan | Packaging Corporation of America Thrift Plan for Hourly Employees |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | May 28, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Packaging Corporation of America, 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, “Packaging Corporation of America 401(k) plan facts for hourly employees”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001193125-26-243403, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
