Employee Benefit Plans

6 Months Ended

Feb. 24, 2024

Postemployment Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

7. Employee Benefit Plans

Defined Contribution Retirement Savings Plan

The Company has a defined contribution retirement savings plan with a 401(k) feature for all eligible U.S. and Canadian employees not under collective bargaining agreements. The Company matches a portion of the employee’s contribution and may make an additional contribution at its discretion. Contributions charged to expense under the plan for the thirteen weeks ended February 24, 2024 and February 25, 2023 were $4.8 million and $4.1 million, respectively. Contributions charged to expense under the plan for the twenty-six weeks ended February 24, 2024 and February 25, 2023 were $10.1 million and $9.9 million, respectively.

Pension Plan and Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

The Company accounts for its pension plan and Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan on an accrual basis over certain employees’ estimated service periods.

The Company maintains an unfunded Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan for certain eligible employees of the Company and one frozen non-contributory defined benefit pension plan. The amounts charged to expense related to these plans were $0.4 million for each of the thirteen weeks ended February 24, 2024 and February 25, 2023. The amounts charged to expense related to these plans were $0.8 million and $0.9 million, respectively, for the twenty-six weeks ended February 24, 2024 and February 25, 2023.

Non-qualified Deferred Compensation Plan

The Company adopted the UniFirst Corporation Deferred Compensation Plan (the “NQDC Plan”) effective on February 1, 2022. The NQDC Plan is an unfunded, non-qualified deferred compensation plan that allows eligible participants to voluntarily defer receipt of their salary and annual cash bonuses up to approved limits. In its discretion, the Company may credit one or more additional contributions to participant accounts. NQDC Plan participants who are not accruing benefits under the Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan are eligible to have discretionary annual employer contributions credited to their NQDC Plan accounts. All participants are also eligible to have employer supplemental contributions and employer discretionary contributions credited to their NQDC Plan accounts. The amounts of such contributions, if any, may differ from year to year and from participant to participant.

The amounts for employee or employer contributions charged to expense related to the NQDC Plan for the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended February 24, 2024 were $0.2 million and $0.4 million, respectively. The amounts for employee or employer contributions charged to expense related to the NQDC Plan for the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended February 25, 2023 were $0.1 million and $0.2 million, respectively.

The Company, at its discretion, may also elect to transfer funds to a trust account with the intention to fund the future liability. Total NQDC Plan assets were $3.0 million and $2.0 million as of February 24, 2024 and August 26, 2023, respectively, and are included within other long-term assets in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. Total NQDC Plan liabilities were $1.1 million and $0.5 million as of February 24, 2024 and August 26, 2023, respectively, and are included within current accrued liabilities in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets.