Walmart Inc. 401(k): Merrill Lynch, match 6% max
Walmart 401(k) Plan · WMT · CIK 104169
Merrill Lynch 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
6%
Walmart Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay.
Walmart filed two Form 11-K reports for plan year 2026, of which one has been read. The other report has not, so this page cannot say what the plan it covers pays.
From the Form 11-K filed July 16, 2026 ↗, covering the plan year ended January 31, 2026. 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 Walmart puts in, and what the plan costs
What Walmart put into the plan, per active participant
$1,092
Walmart Inc. put $1,092 into this plan for each of its 1,670,732 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.
Walmart put in more per active participant than 73% of plans with 5,000+ participants in retail. The middle plan in that group of 196 reported $700. Retail comes from business code 452300, which Walmart 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 Walmart 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 January 31, 2025, EIN 710415188, plan 003 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $1,092 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Walmart Inc. also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2026: the card below reads $2,970 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 Walmart puts in
$2,970
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company match is 100% of deferrals up to 6% of each participant's eligible wages for the Plan year. Company matching contributions are contributed to the Plan each payroll period and are calculated based on each participant's cumulative compensation and cumulative elective and catch-up contributions through such payroll period. Rollover contributions into the Plan are not eligible for a Company matching contribution.”
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
“Participants are immediately vested in all elective, catch-up, rollover, Company matching and qualified non-elective contributions. A participant's profit sharing contribution account shall vest based on years of service at a rate of 20% per year from years two through six and may become fully vested upon participant retirement at age 65 or above, total and permanent disability, or death.”
A worker hired today collects no match for 1 year. This is a filed term, and it does not move the score above.
Eligibility, word for word
“Each eligible employee may begin receiving matching contributions on the first day of the month after completing at least 1,000 hours of service in a consecutive 12-month period commencing on date of hire (or during any subsequent Plan year).”
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
“The Company match is 100% of deferrals up to 6% of each participant's eligible wages for the Plan year. Company matching contributions are contributed to the Plan each payroll period and are calculated based on each participant's cumulative compensation and cumulative elective and catch-up contributions through such payroll period. Rollover contributions into the Plan are not eligible for a Company matching contribution.”
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
16th percentile
$21.48 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 84% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Walmart's 401(k) match formula?
Walmart's 401(k) employer match tops out at 6% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll and 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 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 6% of compensation |
| True-upA year-end recalculation that repays match lost to uneven contributions. | Yes, annual true-up |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Conditions | Rollover contributions into the Plan are not eligible for a Company matching contribution. |
| Other employer contribution | Profit sharing contribution account (legacy): no additional types of contributions were made for the plan year ended January 31, 2026 |
At a $60,000 salary, contributing 6% ($3,600) earns the full employer match of $3,600 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company match is 100% of deferrals up to 6% of each participant's eligible wages for the Plan year. Company matching contributions are contributed to the Plan each payroll period and are calculated based on each participant's cumulative compensation and cumulative elective and catch-up contributions through such payroll period. Rollover contributions into the Plan are not eligible for a Company matching contribution.”
Source: Form 11-K filed July 16, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Walmart's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Walmart 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 |
| Other employer contributions | Profit sharing contribution account vests 20% per year from years two through six; fully vested at age 65 retirement, total and permanent disability, or death |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in all elective, catch-up, rollover, Company matching and qualified non-elective contributions. A participant's profit sharing contribution account shall vest based on years of service at a rate of 20% per year from years two through six and may become fully vested upon participant retirement at age 65 or above, total and permanent disability, or death.”
Source: Form 11-K filed July 16, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Walmart's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Walmart's filing does not mention automatic enrollment, which is not the same as the plan having none.
| Plan entry | Each eligible employee can begin contributing on the employee's date of hire |
|---|---|
| Match eligibility | First day of the month after completing at least 1,000 hours of service in a consecutive 12-month period commencing on date of hire (or during any subsequent Plan year) |
| Automatic enrollment | Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence) |
Eligibility, word for word
“Each eligible employee may begin receiving matching contributions on the first day of the month after completing at least 1,000 hours of service in a consecutive 12-month period commencing on date of hire (or during any subsequent Plan year).”
Source: Form 11-K filed July 16, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Merrill Lynch, filed as “MERRILL LYNCH PIERCE FENNER SMITH I”. 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.
Participants log in at Merrill Benefits OnLine ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Merrill Lynch or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Merrill Lynch |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 135674085 |
What does the Walmart plan report on Form 5500?
The Walmart plan reported $50.8B in assets and 1,921,006 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $50,790,179,678 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 1,921,006 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $21.48 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $21.48 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.
Walmart 401(k) Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Walmart's 401(k) match compare?
Walmart Inc.'s maximum 401(k) match of 6% 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 land near Walmart's maximum match and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in retail.
Employer match vests immediately. Also in retail.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in retail.
Maximum match 6% of pay, level with Walmart.
Maximum match 6% of pay, level with Walmart.
Maximum match 7% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Walmart.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed July 16, 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 Walmart Inc.'s 401(k) match?
Walmart Inc. matches 100% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended January 31, 2026).
When does the Walmart Inc. 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Walmart Inc.'s 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence).
Who is the recordkeeper for Walmart Inc.'s 401(k)?
Merrill Lynch is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Walmart 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 Walmart Inc. filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended January 31, 2026. 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 | Walmart Inc. |
| SEC CIK | 104169 |
| Accession number | 0000104169-26-000136 |
| Plan | Walmart 401(k) Plan |
| Period of report | January 31, 2026 |
| Filed | July 16, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Walmart 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, “Walmart Inc. 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000104169-26-000136, plan year ended January 31, 2026.
