UNEDITD Presents TOP PERSPECTIVES SPECIAL EDITION · SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 MADDY VISWANATH · CRAFT YOUR CONFIDENCE |  Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons | O'Reilly Promotes From Within First. Its 264 Senior Managers Average 20 Years. As of December 31, 2025, O'Reilly Automotive, the company behind O'Reilly Auto Parts, had 264 senior managers who average 20 years of service. Its 649 district managers average 14 years. Those numbers come from its annual report for fiscal 2025 (Form 10-K). For context, in January 2024 the median American wage and salary worker had been with their employer 3.9 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In retail, it was 2.9 years. Those BLS figures are medians for all workers. O'Reilly's are averages for managers who stayed, so treat the gap as a contrast, and nothing more. In March 2025, 14% of private-industry workers had access to a traditional pension. O'Reilly's 10-K discloses no pension plan. So I went looking for what O'Reilly offers its leaders. | The market around O'Reilly From 1980 through 2008, the share of private wage and salary workers participating in a traditional (defined benefit) pension fell from 38% to 20%, according to the Social Security Bulletin. Tenure moved over the same decades. Men aged 55 to 64 had a median of 15.3 years with their employer in 1983. By 2000 it was 10.2 years, and in 2024 it was 10.0. BLS notes the early surveys asked the question differently, so the comparison is directional. Genuine Parts Company, NAPA's parent, froze benefit accruals in its U.S. pension plan effective December 31, 2013, approved ending the plan in 2024, and on December 19, 2025 settled all future obligations under it, with a $742 million pre-tax charge. The same Social Security research estimates that structural change in the economy explains 20% to 50% of the decline in traditional pensions. Pensions and tenure fell in the same decades. Nothing in the data proves one caused the other. | O'Reilly's benefits • A 401(k) for full- and part-time team members. The company matches 100% of the first 2% of wages an employee contributes and 25% of the next 4%, so the match tops out at 3% of wages. It spent $58.9 million on matching in 2025. • A discount stock purchase plan. Eligible employees can buy shares at 85% of fair market value. This is not what sets O'Reilly apart: AutoZone's plan also prices at 85%, using the lower of the quarter's first-day or last-day price. Advance Auto Parts offers a 10% discount. • Performance pay that reaches the store. Store team members can earn incentive pay tied to their own performance or their store's. From district manager up, the company adds share-based compensation. • More full-time roles. Full-time team members went from 65% of the workforce in January 2020 to 84% in January 2026. AutoZone reported about 60% full-time in August 2025, and Advance Auto Parts' reported headcount works out to about 52% full-time in January 2026. The dates differ. | Promote from within, first The 10-K says O'Reilly's philosophy is to "promote from within" first, and that it augments this with strategic hires, with "a strong emphasis on automotive aftermarket experience." The video description for AftermarketNews' DriveTime interview with CEO Brad Beckham, published April 11, 2025, says all 650 of O'Reilly's district managers and all 75 of its regional managers came from inside O'Reilly. The 10-K counted 649 district managers at year end. My read: a benefit is easier for a competitor to match than a bench of managers who all came up from inside. | Limits of this data • Who left. The tenure figures count managers who stayed. O'Reilly's own 10-K says many of its hourly positions "historically have had high turnover rates" and discloses no rate. • A fair comparison. O'Reilly reports the average tenure of managers. BLS reports the median tenure of all workers. Treat the gap as suggestive. • Pay history. O'Reilly's 10-K discloses no salary increase history and no bonus dollar amounts. • The frontline. The tenure and promotion figures describe managers, not the parts counter. | | | Maddy's read In a company that promotes from within, the people deciding your next seat have usually watched your work first-hand. I was in your shoes in the first 10 years of my career, waiting for my work to speak for itself. I got a 3% raise every year because I was being loyal. In the next 10 years, I made 110% more. A strong year only reaches the room where that decision happens if someone in it brings it up. Who are the people who would say your name in the rooms you are not in? |
| | Tool of the week · The Readiness Score If you want to see how your own page reads to that room, the free Readiness Score takes about two minutes. | See you next Monday. Maddy | Sources Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 69, No. 3 Genuine Parts Company, Form 10-K filings AutoZone, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 Advance Auto Parts, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 | Craft Your Confidence |
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