The End of the 401(k) Match?

Published on November 17th, 2008 - 12 Comments
Filed under: Economy
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

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12 Responses to “The End of the 401(k) Match?”

1. 1
   Reductions Suck Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

   I don’t have to imagine. Just got out of a meeting stating exactly that, all contract employees get a 10% pay cut effective immediately.

   It would be adding insult to injury if my company decided to turn around and get rid of the matching funds too.

2. 2
   Daniel Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

   If my choices were “you will be let go, or your 401k contributions will be cut, or your salary will be cut,” I would gladly take a pay reduction, and I wouldn’t really care whether that pay reduction was in the form of 401k contributions or wages.

3. 3
   Miss m Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

   My company doesn’t give much of a match (and they lump sum it at the end of the year) so it wouldn’t kill me if they took it away. But, it’s this slow chipping away at benefits that disturb me, eventually it will touch things important to me like health insurance.

4. 4
   MITBeta @ Don't Feed the Alligators Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

   I worked for a company that cut my pay. Didn’t like it, and didn’t last long there after the fact. The worst part was that it was done to increase profits, not to keep the doors open.

5. 5
   Shadox Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

   401K matching is just like any other form of pay. The real problem is that the government creates a distorted tax incentive here, based on which companies match contributions and which don’t.

   The real solution is for the tax code to be changed such that retirement savings are subject to tax deferral, whether they are done in the context of a 401k and IRA or another type of retirement savings, up to a certain amount. The amount should not be subject to change based on the source of the contribution.

   Under this kind of arrangement, companies would pay employees their salaries and employees could decide how to spend or save their money. Companies would be much more hesitant to cut salaries than they are to reduce so-called “benefits”.

6. 6
   Funny about Money Says:
   November 18th, 2008 at 8:21 am

   It’s just another step in the impoverishment of the American worker. Defined pension plans were much safer for most people; they represented a relatively risk-free source of retirement income, which absolutely is not the case with a 401(k) or 403(b). Since there’s no requirement for employers to match your contributions, it’s reasonable to expect that eventually they will stop doing so.

   IMHO, it would be far better to pay the taxes on your savings and be allowed to put a much larger amount into Roth IRAs. The Roth as the advantage that you can pass it to your kids without having a large chunk confiscated, in addition to the obvious advantage that you can best afford to pay income taxes when you have a job. As a person nearing retirement, I now can see that after I’ve paid tax on a 4% withdrawal from savings, I won’t have enough to live on, combined with Social Security. My savings are many times that of the average American. Despite that, the drop in the stock market coming at a time when I’m on the verge of retirement (read “layoff at retirement age”) leaves me with too little to survive on.

   When I started at the university, I had a choice between the state pension plan and a 403(b) arrangement. Mebbe I should’ve taken the pension plan!

7. 7
   nickel Says:
   November 18th, 2008 at 9:27 am

   FAM: It’s hard to say. While the pension might look great right now, there’s always the possibility that benefits will be reduced, etc.

8. 8
   Nick Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

   I think those are mainly isolated, considering the condition of those two companies. Even at that, I can’t see them cutting company contributions for long. Once they start turning a profit again (which if they do, it won’t be too long), they’ll be reinstating their matching plans.

9. 9
   Sarah Says:
   November 20th, 2008 at 6:11 am

   So Republicans want to kill Social Security, companies have been moving from defines pension to 401k’s, and now the matching contribution goes away.

   My new retirement plan is outlined in this book:

   A History Of Vagrants And Vagrancy And Beggars And Begging (Paperback)
   by Charles James Ribton-Turner

10. 10
    Daniel Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 6:31 am

    Sarah, what do you mean “Republicans want to kill Social Security”? Social Security is going to implode unless it is changed radically, and relatively quickly.

11. 11
    guest Says:
    November 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    I’ve never gotten a match. I’m a temp – when i can get the work.

    stop crying. you have a job

12. 12
    jhat Says:
    December 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    hey guest….

    stop loafing and get a full time job…. that statement makes as much sense as your “stop crying you have a job”……