State retirement profile · Form 5500

Retirement Plans in Washington

According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), employer-sponsored 401(k), pension, and other retirement plans headquartered in Washington report the totals below.

Data updated 2026-08-25

2,612
Plans
$502.4B
Total assets
#7
By assets

$502.4B across 2,612 plans

According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), Washington has 2,612 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $502.4B in total assets for 3,856,163 participants, ranking 7th nationally by plan assets, with 79% structured as 401(k)s and an average of $192M per plan.

  • 7th nationally by plan assets
  • 79% 401(k) plans

The state in one line

Washington hosts 2,612 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $502.4B for 3,856,163 participants, the 7th-largest state by plan assets.

$502.4B
total plan assets
2,612
employer plans
$130,276
avg assets per participant
79%
of plans are 401(k)s
401(k) Plans
2,056
Participants
3,856,163

What the Form 5500 Data Shows for Washington

Washington: 2,612 employer-sponsored plans (2,056 401(k)), $502.4B aggregate assets, 3,856,163 participants. Average plan: $192M; largest is The Boeing Company 401(k) Retirement Plan at $73.9B. Leading sector by assets: Manufacturing (29%). These figures aggregate the 2,612 Form 5500 filings Washington sponsors submitted for plan year 2024, counted by sponsor headquarters rather than participant residence; a plan administered in Washington can cover workers across several states, and the methodology page details that HQ-vs-residence distinction. DOL Form 5500 methodology + HQ-vs-residence caveats →

Manufacturing leads Washington plan assets (29%)

Among plans headquartered here, Manufacturing accounts for $148.1B across 366 filings, ahead of Information & Media at $76.9B. Sector mix is a Form 5500-derived signal: it reflects where sponsors file from, not where every participant lives.

DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024

Washington hosts 100 ESOP filings

Employee Stock Ownership Plans here hold $5.0B. ESOP density is uneven across states; when the count clears a meaningful floor, the ESOP ranking and industry pages are the better drill-downs than a 401(k)-only read.

DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024

Where Washington sits in the Form 5500 corpus

Washington sits in the top decile of U.S. states by Form 5500 plan assets (#7 of 56), so national rankings and peer comparisons are the useful next read.

DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024

Washington's place in the national asset distribution

All states with reported Form 5500 plan assets · plan year 2024

$502,364,707,904 Top 11% higher than 89% of 56 states with reported plan assets

Washington $0 $1,324,371,844,360 state retirement-plan assets, bucketed by value

Dashed line + filled bar = this entry, among states with reported plan assets.

Source U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset · plan year 2024

Washington's retirement-plan mix

1. 401(k)2,0562. Profit Sharing1873. Other1284. Defined Benefit (Pension)1195. ESOP100
The five most common Form 5500 plan types among sponsors headquartered in Washington. This count describes filings, not participants or assets.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset · plan year 2024.

Industry mix in Washington

Top sectors by Form 5500 plan assets for sponsors headquartered here (plan year 2024).

Industry Plans Assets
Manufacturing 366 $148.1B
Information & Media 65 $76.9B
Transportation & Warehousing 76 $68.6B
Retail Trade 197 $57.0B
Professional & Technical Services 454 $54.6B

Largest Plans in Washington

# Plan Name Type Participants Total Assets
1 The Boeing Company 401(k) Retirement Plan 401(k) 139,394 $73.9B
2 Microsoft Corporation Savings Plus 401(k) Plan 401(k) 118,818 $65.6B
3 Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 231,156 $56.4B
4 Costco 401(k) Retirement Plan 401(k) 202,468 $41.0B
5 Amazon 401(k) Plan 401(k) 1,209,303 $34.6B
6 The Pension Value Plan for Employees of the Boeing Company Defined Benefit (Pension) 29,538 $23.3B
7 The Boeing Company Employee Retirement Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 31,398 $15.4B
8 401(k) Savings Plan 401(k) 86,668 $10.1B
9 T-Mobile USA, Inc. 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan & Trust 401(k) 66,624 $9.1B
10 Providence Health & Services 403(b) Value Plan 401(k) 52,776 $6.5B
11 Starbucks Corporation 401(k) Plan 401(k) 231,064 $4.9B
12 St. Joseph and Covenant Health Systems 401(k) Plan 401(k) 29,922 $4.5B
13 Nordstrom 401(k) Plan 401(k) 58,225 $4.3B
14 Locals 302 & 612 of the Iuoe - Employers Construction Industry Retirement Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 8,695 $3.3B
15 Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan ESOP 4,281 $3.2B
16 Paccar Inc Savings Investment Plan 401(k) 11,793 $2.9B
17 Paccar Inc Retirement Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 10,345 $2.7B
18 Sound Retirement Trust Defined Benefit (Pension) 75,402 $2.7B
19 Alaska Airlines, Inc. Pilots Investment and Savings Plan 401(k) 3,490 $2.6B
20 Weyerhaeuser 401(k) Plan 401(k) 7,871 $2.4B
21 Boeing North American Retirement Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 137 $2.3B
22 Fortive Retirement Savings Plan 401(k) 9,742 $2.1B
23 Milliman Profit Sharing and Retirement Plan 401(k) 3,594 $2.1B
24 Gciu - Employer Retirement Benefit Plan Defined Benefit (Pension) 1,253 $1.8B
25 Expedia Retirement Savings Plan 401(k) 8,260 $1.8B

Nearby States by Retirement Plan Footprint

States ranked adjacent to Washington by total retirement plan assets.

Compare Washington side-by-side with 3 peer states →

Nationwide states with similar retirement plan scale

Two DOL Form 5500-derived peer sets for Washington, each a different nationwide metric so the neighborhoods are not geographic containment (the asset-ranked nearby list above stays regional).

Similar plan count

Nearest other states by reported employer plan filings (2,612 here).

Colorado 2,719 plans Maryland 2,484 plans Tennessee 2,384 plans Minnesota 2,865 plans

Similar total assets

Nearest other states by aggregate plan assets ($502.4B here).

Ohio $472.1B Virginia $466.2B Massachusetts $432.5B Michigan $419.4B

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the largest retirement plan headquartered in Washington? ▼
The largest Form 5500 filing by assets with a headquarters address in Washington is The Boeing Company 401(k) Retirement Plan ($73.9B, 139,394 participants).
Which industry leads Washington retirement plan assets? ▼
Manufacturing leads with $148.1B across 366 plans headquartered here (29% of state plan assets).
How does Washington compare to other states for retirement plans? ▼
Washington sits in the top decile of U.S. states by Form 5500 plan assets (#7 of 56), so national rankings and peer comparisons are the useful next read.

Next read for Washington

Industry-mix reading

Ways to act on Washington's numbers.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset. Shows the top 25 plans by total assets headquartered in Washington, out of 130,145 ERISA-covered plans nationally. Plan year 2024.

Source: DOL EFAST2 filing system (efast.dol.gov) - state is the plan sponsor's headquarters state as recorded on the Form 5500 filing.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from U.S. Department of Labor Form 5500 filings (EBSA). See our methodology for details.