Could companies stop matching 401k contributions?

[Finance Dave]

Oh great...another unintended consequence.

Financial Advisor Magazine

 

[saluki9]

a lot of plans don't match anything already.

I've also seen a bunch that on top of not matching bill the participant's accounts for the admin fees.

 

[Lusitan]

No match here.

 

[GatorBuzz]

Wow. I didn't know there were companies that did not match at least something. I guess I should be glad my company 50/100 up to 10%.

 

[Marquette]

100% to 6% + around another 1.5% lump sum every year because they love us... then again, they can afford to do that because of the line of business we're in.

 

[DangerMouse]

This was the first thing my former company cut out earlier this year when business went quiet.

 

[73ss454]

After fighting with my boss for years he finally gave in and offered us a SEPP.

He didn't contribute a dime, cheapskate!

I'm glad that's all over with.

 

[mb]

Wow. I didn't know there were companies that did not match at least something. I guess I should be glad my company 50/100 up to 10%.

My experience is that Silicon Valley startups put a 401k in place when they reach a couple of dozen employees but don't start matching until they are profitable. Of course many fail before that happens.

 

[growing_older]

50% match up to 6%. Recently added it. Before there was no match. A friend works for a company that used to match and then stopped. They gave notice that the plan was changing next quarter, but nothing anyone could do. It's a benefit and companies can change those as they will.

 

[aaronc879]

I get .50/1.00 for first 2% and .25/1.00 for next 6%. Total max of 2.5%. That's the worst of anyone I personaly know but it could be worse. After they dropped the pension plan in '07, they also included a 3-5%(depending on profit) annual payment to 401K as a replacement to the traditional pension, as long as you contribute at least 3% every pay period.

 

[FreeAtLast]

No match but can't complain, I only work 18 hours/wk and employer pays full health/dental/vacation & sick time.

 

[Darryl]

No match but we still have a traditional pension.

 

[ziggy29]

For what it's worth, 100% of the first 5%.

 

[RDamien]

66% of the first 6% plus a small company performance based lump sum. I'll take it. Plus bonus. Plus a nice employee stock purchase program.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Bigmediaco used to match 25% of the first 4%--stopped doing that. BMC used to put 10 percent of salary at end of year in profit sharing/401K. Stopped doing that. BMC also charges all fees against the 401K's balance, including the extra $3.67 to move $55,000 from one fund to another last week....

 

[laurence]

75% match up to 6% (they pay 4%). Nothing to write home about.

 

[Pete]

Many of my family and friends are losing their matching funds and paying more for their health benefits at work. Something to compute when we here phony reports about rising wages from the gov't.

 

[laurence]

What my mega-corp has done is to continually "grandfather" benefits. I missed out on the best benefits, and there have been two "downgrades" since then. What's funny is they always offer the "new" plan to existing employees. I think they do that just to make new employees feel better, like there might be some weird scenario where cutting matching and pension amounts works out to your advantage.

 

[Tadpole]

My husband works for the State of Delaware. They have contributed $10 per two week pay period until this month. They just announced they can't afford the $260/employee per year and will no longer give him the $10/pay period for his 401K. Last year they raised the employee share of the healthcare and they have turned the retiree healthcare into a Medicare advantage with BC/BS. He retires next year so, after he found out that he was losing his $10 windfall, he came home and laughed. Myself, I was disappointed as I have always considered the $10 as my market play money and used it, within the constraints of his Fidelity plan, to have fun with risky investing.

 

[saluki9]

75% match up to 6% (they pay 4%). Nothing to write home about.

unless you're in a plan than gets no match at all

 

[2B]

I get a "profit sharing" contribution once per year into my 401k. It isn't a match because you don't need to contribute to get the payment. It runs between 4.75 and 5.00% - at least for the last 3 years. The company is making a massive profit these days.

We have a SEPP plan for us "high level" employees. I'm a grunt and am proud of it. The SEPP plan contributes 8% of whatever I contribute. It has a 5 year vesting period so I don't expect to collect any of it. I haven't read the plan literature carefully but their may be a "retirement vesting" clause. The whole point of the SEPP is to discourage me from leaving the company but it won't have any impact when the time comes.

 

[Alan]

We still have a defined benefit pension plan and a 50/100 match on the first 5% in the 401(k). The parent companies did away with their defined benefit pension plan years ago and every year are expectations that ours will go that way as well.