12th & Good Street

“Is my 401(k) match actually good, or am I just guessing?”

The answer

Most people genuinely don't know, because there's rarely anything to compare it to — you only ever see your own plan.

As a rough sense of the landscape: many employer matches land somewhere around 50% of the first 6% an employee contributes (effectively a bonus of about 3% of pay), though matches vary widely by company and industry, and some are considerably more or less generous than that.

What actually matters more than comparing to a benchmark: are you contributing enough to get all of what's offered, whatever the formula is? That's the number worth knowing cold. Your Summary Plan Description (or a two-line email to HR: "what's our match formula?") will tell you exactly where you stand — and once you know it, a coach can help you think through whether it changes anything else in your plan.

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Related questions

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