Waste Management, Inc. 401(k): Merrill Lynch, match 4.5% max
Waste Management Retirement Savings Plan · WM · CIK 823768
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
4.5%
Waste Management, Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 3% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4.5% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 18, 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 Waste Management puts in, and what the plan costs
What Waste Management put into the plan, per active participant
$3,148
Waste Management, Inc. put $3,148 into this plan for each of its 38,168 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.
Waste Management put in more per active participant than 89% of plans with 5,000+ participants in administrative and support services. The middle plan in that group of 93 reported $521. Administrative and support services comes from business code 562000, which Waste Management 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 Waste Management 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 731309529, plan 001 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $3,148 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Waste Management, Inc. also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,228 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 Waste Management puts in
$2,228
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“With respect to each participant whose employment is not governed by a collective bargaining agreement, Waste Management matches 100% of each participant’s Employee Contribution up to 3% of the participant’s eligible annual compensation, as defined by the Plan, plus 50% of the participant’s Employee Contribution on the next 3% of the participant’s eligible annual compensation.”
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 their Employee Contributions, Rollover Contributions and Employer Contributions, plus earnings thereon.”
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
25th percentile
$32.01 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 75% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Waste Management's 401(k) match formula?
Waste Management's 401(k) employer match tops out at 4.5% of pay. 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 3% of pay |
| Maximum employer match | 4.5% of compensation |
| Conditions | Formula applies to participants whose employment is not governed by a collective bargaining agreement; for collectively bargained participants, employer contributions, if any, are set by the applicable collective bargaining agreement. |
At a $45,000 salary, contributing 6% ($2,700) earns the full employer match of $2,025 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“With respect to each participant whose employment is not governed by a collective bargaining agreement, Waste Management matches 100% of each participant’s Employee Contribution up to 3% of the participant’s eligible annual compensation, as defined by the Plan, plus 50% of the participant’s Employee Contribution on the next 3% of the participant’s eligible annual compensation.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 18, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Waste Management's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Waste Management 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
“Participants are immediately vested in their Employee Contributions, Rollover Contributions and Employer Contributions, plus earnings thereon.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 18, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Waste Management's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Waste Management enrolls new hires automatically at 3% of pay.
| Plan entry | Following completion of a 90-day period of service |
|---|---|
| Excluded groups | Leased employees; employees under a collective bargaining agreement that does not provide for participation; independent contractors; non-resident aliens with no U.S. source income; participants in certain other Waste Management retirement plans |
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 3% of pay |
Eligibility, word for word
“Employees (as defined by the Plan) are eligible to participate in the Plan following completion of a 90-day period of service (as defined by the Plan).”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“Any such employee is automatically enrolled in the Plan at a contribution rate of 3% of eligible compensation, unless changed by the employee.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 18, 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”. 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 Waste Management plan report on Form 5500?
The Waste Management plan reported $4.1B in assets and 47,426 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $4,076,643,703 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 47,426 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $32.01 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $32.01 per participant. The median across plans in administrative and support services is $97.33, from the 1,619 of 1,704 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Waste Management Retirement Savings Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Waste Management's 401(k) match compare?
Waste Management, Inc.'s maximum 401(k) match of 4.5% 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 administrative and support services, two land near Waste Management's maximum match and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay. Also in administrative and support services.
Maximum match 4% of pay. Also in administrative and support services.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Also in administrative and support services.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay, level with Waste Management.
Maximum match 4.5% of pay, level with Waste Management.
Employer match vests immediately. Vests immediately too, like Waste Management.
Compare Waste Management, 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 18, 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 Waste Management, Inc.'s 401(k) match?
Waste Management, Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 3% of pay, then 50% of the next 3% of pay, for a maximum employer match of 4.5% of compensation (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the Waste Management, Inc. 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Waste Management, Inc.'s 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 3% of pay.
Who is the recordkeeper for Waste Management, Inc.'s 401(k)?
Merrill Lynch is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Waste Management Retirement Savings 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 Waste Management, 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 | Waste Management, Inc. |
| SEC CIK | 823768 |
| Accession number | 0001104659-26-075661 |
| Plan | Waste Management Retirement Savings Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 18, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Waste Management, 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, “Waste Management, Inc. 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001104659-26-075661, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
