Monday.com employees should know how vesting affects retirement match ownership

A 401(k) line item can look like free money until vesting tells you when it actually becomes yours. At monday.com, where retirement benefits sit alongside salary, equity, and other perks, that detail can change the real value of the package as much as any headline number.

What vesting really means

Vesting is ownership. Your own 401(k) contributions are always fully vested, which means they belong to you right away. Employer contributions are different: they may be available immediately, they may vest all at once after a set period of service, or they may vest gradually over time.

That is why the plan document matters so much. The IRS says employers can use different methods of counting service, so one company’s rule is not automatically another company’s rule. A year of service is generally measured as 1,000 hours worked over 12 months, but plans can use other service-counting methods, which matters if you work part time, take leave, or switch roles.

How monday.com frames the benefit

monday.com’s benefit listings say the company provides a 401(k) matching plan managed by ADP. Those same listings say monday.com contributes 3% of an employee’s annual gross pay regardless of what the employee contributes. That makes the retirement benefit feel more like a company-funded contribution than a traditional dollar-for-dollar match.

For employees, that distinction is useful but not the whole story. A flat employer contribution can still be subject to vesting, which means the money may not fully belong to you if you leave before meeting the plan’s service requirements. The practical question is not just how much monday.com puts in, but when those dollars become yours to keep.

The broader benefits package also matters here. monday.com’s public benefit materials list parental leave, commuter stipends, and other non-retirement perks, so the 401(k) sits inside a wider total-rewards structure rather than standing alone. For workers weighing whether to stay through another product cycle, promotion round, or sales year, that full package can shape the real economics of remaining at the company.

The IRS rules that matter

The Internal Revenue Service says employer contributions can vest immediately, after a service cliff, or gradually over time, depending on the plan document. For defined contribution plans, the agency’s participant guidance points to minimum schedules that reach full vesting after three years under a cliff structure or by six years under a graded structure. Other IRS compliance materials on vesting errors in defined contribution plans refer to five-year cliff and seven-year graded schedules, which is why employees should always look at the specific plan in front of them rather than assume one rule fits every employer.

That distinction is not academic. If employer money is forfeitable before vesting, leaving even a little early can mean walking away from part of the benefit package. In a fast-moving tech environment, where people often change companies, chase promotions, or move after a product launch, the vesting clock can matter as much as the contribution rate.

What to check before you count the money

Before you treat the benefit as yours, read the Summary Plan Description and look for four things:

• How many years of service are required for full vesting
• Whether the plan uses cliff vesting or graded vesting
• How the plan counts service, especially if your hours vary
• What happens to employer contributions if you leave before vesting

That review is especially important at a company like monday.com, which is no longer a small startup with a loose benefits story. The company said in its 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F, filed on March 13, 2026, that more than 250,000 customers worldwide use its platform. At that scale, retirement policy is not a side note. It is part of how a global software company pays and retains its people.

The cleanest way to think about the benefit is simple: salary is what you earn today, equity is what may pay off later, and vested retirement contributions are the employer dollars you have actually secured. If you work at monday.com, the number on the benefits page is only the starting point. Vesting is what tells you how much of it you truly own.