Companies Squeeze 401K Plans From Facebook to JPMorgan

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-14/companies-squeeze-401-k-plans-from-facebook-to-jpmorgan.html

Employers are squeezing their workers’ retirement savings, holding back on both the amount and the timing of 401(k) matching funds and dragging out vesting schedules. Taken together, these measures are making it more difficult to save for old age.

Major companies that have engaged in such practices in recent years include Whole Foods Market Inc., Facebook Inc., Oracle Corp., Caesars Entertainment Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The most frugal have been scaling back company matches and setting lower limits for the maximum annual payment they’ll make to a 401(k) account, according to hundreds of government filings analyzed by Bloomberg. A difference of three percentage points on a match can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars lost for employees over the course of their careers.

“There’s been an implicit contract for years and years -- workers save and companies match -- but now they’re changing the rules,” said Brigitte Madrian, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who studies retirement policy and corporate management. “Most individuals can’t do it on their own. We’re going in the wrong direction.”

[Rex]

1. Like Big Biz cares about the work force!

Expendable human capital! Money!? GET A JOB!

[laundry_queen]

2. assholes

The whole purpose of a defined contribution over a defined benefit plan is to save corporations money while still giving employees the benefit to help them retire. Now, they are too fucking cheap to do that...like they don't make enough profit already they can't match a few percent anymore? "We're going in the wrong direction." No shit, have been for awhile now. Anything for a few fractions of a percent in profit.

[AgingAmerican]

3. The hits just keep on coming

Greed ruins everything it touches.

[Uben]

4. First, they took away our pensions....

...then our raises, and now they're cutting back on the 401K matches and vestment times. The irony is, a lot of these "business owners" got their start from their pensions and 401Ks.

I was once in a management meeting at a small company I was working for. The prez of the company was beaming because he had just implemented a 401K match (up to 4 %). I made a comment that it wouldn't help our minimum wage workers because they can't afford to save a dime. They would be much better served if he would just give them a 4% across the board raise. For that, I was called to the carpet and told I should be more of a company guy and support it's policy. I told him he was wrong, and tendered my 2-wk notice after giving him an epic tongue lashing. A little while later, I was told to go home and was given the two weeks paid.
I had already secured another job paying twice what this company had paid me, so having the opportunity to unload on this jerk was so sweet! A couple of years later, I saw him at a fund-raiser for a charity and he acted like he was my best friend. Much to his chagrin, I told him, "you're not my friend, I don't associate with assholes."

I also took 4 employees with me when I left. They, too, got much higher wages and a much better job with the new company. Karma kicked in and two yrs later, the company this jerk was running went bankrupt.

Sometimes, things just work out for the best!