401(k) employer matching question

[pete6032]

Question for anyone here who has one. Does your employer contribution come once per year or do they contribute with every pay check? If it is the former and you have quit your job, did your employer make a pro-rated 401k contribution for your last year of employment when you left?

 

[clemsyn]

They match every pay check.

 

[Brainonska511]

My old job: match happened once per year, usually in August. If you left early, you got nothing.

Current job: matches every pay cycle.

 

[yottabit]

Every pay cycle, but there is also a vesting schedule. Need to be at the company a few years to keep the full match

 

[Brainonska511]

Every pay cycle, but there is also a vesting schedule. Need to be at the company a few years to keep the full match

I'm lucky that my current job uses the 401k safe harbor provision: immediate vesting.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Every paycheck

 

[brianmanahan]

every paycheck, but at my company the match is no more than 1/26 of the annual match per paycheck

a lot of companies do this, so people can inadvertently miss out on a lot of the employer match if they decide to hit the 401k limit early in the year instead of spacing out their contributions to last the whole year

 

[deadlyapp]

Every pay check, immediate vest. Last company was every pay check, 3 year vest.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

You need to read your Plan Document to understand how the Plan is administered. HR can supply this to you, but it also should be published and be linked in your handbook.

As you can see, every plan is different.

 

[yottabit]

It would be nice to know everyone’s match % structure too, mine is a 100% match up to 2% contribution which is about the lowest I’ve ever heard of honestly

 

[nakedfrog]

It would be nice to know everyone’s match % structure too, mine is a 100% match up to 2% contribution which is about the lowest I’ve ever heard of honestly

Mine used to be 100% up to 3%, a few years back they switched to a 50% match with a max of 3%.

 

[Brainonska511]

It would be nice to know everyone’s match % structure too, mine is a 100% match up to 2% contribution which is about the lowest I’ve ever heard of honestly

Prior company, part of an S&P500 holding company: 50% match up to 4%, so effectively a 2% match. Match paid out once per year; 3 year vesting schedule. Here, I could only choose whole percents for contributing, so I'd either hit the contribution limit early or undershoot it by a bit.

Current company: 5% match, paid out each cycle, no vesting. I can also choose a dollar amount for my biweekly contribution instead of a percent, which makes it easy to get close to the 401k limit at a constant contribution rate over the year.

 

[IronWing]

I worked for a university for a few years which had up to 10% match. It was a sweet deal. Where I work now is up to 5% match, contributed with each paycheck, no venting.

At the university, some of my coworkers wouldn't get the match because they thought contributing to the plan was the university, "stealing their money." Explaining that if they contributed, got the match, and then immediately withdrew the money, with tax penalties for doing so, they would still come out ahead made no impression.

 

[pcgeek11]

Before I retired they matched 75% on the dollar up to 9% contribution.
They also had a 3 year vesting requirement, but they did away with that long ago.

They also had a company paid pension, which I am currently enjoying.

 

[nOOky]

We are matched with every paycheck, and if you're fully vested it's 100% match up to 5%. It used to be some tiered scale, but recent efforts to attract new employees had the company increase the vacation and benefits. New employees get two weeks of vacation on day one, it took me almost two years back in 1998 to get a week of vacation.

 

[jpiniero]

As a "Temp" I don't get a match. Apparently 401(k) plans with no match aren't popular so it's not a surprise that the Agency has a Ghetto tier 401(k) provider.

 

[Brainonska511]

. New employees get two weeks of vacation on day one, it took me almost two years back in 1998 to get a week of vacation.

My last employer had it so you could use all your yearly vacation stating in January (or 90 days after hire). Of course, if you quit and lived in a state where vacation could pay out, then it suddenly accrued at a fixed rate...

 

[repoman0]

100% match up to 5% every paycheck, no vesting period. 5% pension contribution with three year vesting.

Wife has something measly like match up to $1500 — but has access to a mega backdoor Roth in her plan, which we max along with the rest, and makes like 4x what I make.

 

[purbeast0]

It depends on the company.

My current company puts 10% of my pay in regardless of me contributing anything to it.

They put in 6% every pay period.

Then once a year after they do their audit, I get a lump 4% of my salary dumped into my 401k.

They've told us that shortly though it's going to change to be 10% of our salary contributed every pay period.

 

[purbeast0]

every paycheck, but at my company the match is no more than 1/26 of the annual match per paycheck

a lot of companies do this, so people can inadvertently miss out on a lot of the employer match if they decide to hit the 401k limit early in the year instead of spacing out their contributions to last the whole year

I'm not following this, or this is a subtle flex about you making a boatload of money.

Personal contributions limit is like $22k, but employer + personal contributions is around $66k.

Are you saying that employees are hitting their $22k personal limit + $44k contributed by their company as a fraction of their salary, early in the year?

 

[repoman0]

I'm not following this, or this is a subtle flex about you making a boatload of money.

Personal contributions limit is like $22k, but employer + personal contributions is around $66k.

Are you saying that employees are hitting their $22k personal limit + $44k contributed by their company as a fraction of their salary, early in the year?

It just means that the employee contributions have to be spread out evenly throughout the year at his company specifically, otherwise the 1/26 semiweekly contributions don’t add up to the full 100% possible match. I’m assuming it’s less than $44k, salaries that high normally aren’t regular W2 pay.

The $66k (now $69k) number also includes employee after tax contributions if the plan allows. Thats the mega backdoor Roth thing that my wife’s plan has but mine doesn’t.

 

[IronWing]

It just means that the employee contributions have to be spread out evenly throughout the year at his company specifically, otherwise the 1/26 semiweekly contributions don’t add up to the full 100% possible match. I’m assuming it’s less than $44k, salaries that high normally aren’t regular W2 pay.

The $66k (now $69k) number also includes employee after tax contributions if the plan allows. Thats the mega backdoor Roth thing that my wife’s plan has but mine doesn’t.

Yep, my company's plan works that way. If I front load contributions early in the year and contribute below the match level in later pay periods, I don't get the match for those pay periods and therefore miss out on a portion of the total potential match for the year.

 

[purbeast0]

It just means that the employee contributions have to be spread out evenly throughout the year at his company specifically, otherwise the 1/26 semiweekly contributions don’t add up to the full 100% possible match. I’m assuming it’s less than $44k, salaries that high normally aren’t regular W2 pay.

The $66k (now $69k) number also includes employee after tax contributions if the plan allows. Thats the mega backdoor Roth thing that my wife’s plan has but mine doesn’t.

Yeah but he said it is done that way because people hit the limit early in the year so that the company stops contributing, which is the part I wasn't following.

 

[purbeast0]

Yep, my company's plan works that way. If I front load contributions early in the year and contribute below the match level in later pay periods, I don't get the match for those pay periods and therefore miss out on a portion of the total potential match for the year.

Oooooh okay nevermind, now I understand what he was saying.

I was thinking the way my company does it in that they just contribute into it regardless if we do or not. It's not a match they just do it. But he's talking about a match, which makes sense now.

Thanks for clarifying.

 

[deadlyapp]

It would be nice to know everyone’s match % structure too, mine is a 100% match up to 2% contribution which is about the lowest I’ve ever heard of honestly

100% up to 3%, 50% from 3-6%.