John Menard Jr.'s Net Worth Declines Amid Legal and Market Challenges

Picture a billionaire whose fortune has been on a roller coaster: Forbes pegged John Menard Jr.’s net worth at $22.9 billion in 2024, but the real‑time billionaire list now shows a drop to $20.5 billion in 2025 and a sharper slide to $16.7 billion in 2026. That decline has also pushed him from 37th on the world’s richest list in 2024 to 174th in 2026.

Menard’s wealth journey has been nothing short of meteoric. From a modest $775 million in 1996 he climbed to $5.2 billion by 2007, then leapt to $16.6 billion in 2021. For several years he reigned as Wisconsin’s richest man, only to be overtaken in 2025 by Diane Hendricks, whose net worth topped $21.7 billion.

The Menards chain itself has grown from 150 stores in 2000 to roughly 341 locations across 15 states today. The retailer holds about 4‑5 percent of the U.S. home‑improvement market—tiny compared to Home Depot’s 52 percent (about 2,300 stores) and Lowe’s 30 percent (about 1,700 stores). While Menards’ revenue has barely budged since 2020, Home Depot’s sales jumped from $112 billion to $166 billion in the same span. Amazon has eclipsed them all as the largest online seller of hardware and tools, with Lowe’s second.

Labor disputes have taken center stage in recent years. Two multi‑state class‑action suits claim that hourly workers were forced to attend mandatory meetings and complete “In‑Home Training” off the clock, and that the company miscalculated overtime wages. In 2024, the Minnesota Department of Labor discovered that Menards had deducted wages 103 times from an employee who pumped breast milk while on the clock. The agency issued a consent order demanding back wages, damages, policy changes, a statewide audit, and a $15,000 penalty.

Manager pay doesn’t exactly compete with national averages either. According to Indeed, the average annual salary for a Menards manager in Wisconsin sits at about $58,973—22 percent below the national average.

Safety concerns have translated into costly legal battles. In 2017, a 27‑year‑old worker was killed when a forklift tipped over at a Minnesota store. Four years later, a 19‑year‑old trainee was crushed by a collapsing stack of lumber during a forklift operation; the family’s wrongful‑death lawsuit alleges the employee was left unsupervised to handle a load beyond the forklift’s capacity. Minnesota OSHA fined Menards $25,000 after the 2021 incident.

Just last month, a jury in Eau Claire County awarded $5.5 million to an injured employee for unsafe forklift practices at a distribution center—a verdict the MacGillis Law Group called one of the largest known forklift injury awards against the company.

Consumer complaints have piled up as well. In December 2025 a court found Menards guilty of false advertising and ordered the company to pay $4.2 million to ten states, including Wisconsin. The multistate lawsuit involved the Wisconsin attorney general, Josh Kaul. Earlier that month, Menards settled a deceptive advertising and rebate practices case for $4.25 million.

Despite these challenges, Menards remains the third‑largest home‑improvement retailer in the United States, with estimated annual sales of about $13 billion. The privately owned company carries a safety grade of C, has accrued 231 OSHA violations across 187 inspections, and faces $325,000 in penalties.

In short, a mix of stagnant sales, fierce competition, and a litany of labor, safety, and consumer‑law issues has eroded John Menard Jr.’s wealth and his standing among America’s richest individuals.