Employers are acutely aware of the value of helping employees save for retirement, but their recent actions are at odds with that sentiment.
For more than 8 in 10 employers, retirement benefits are “extremely” or “very important” for attracting and retaining workers, according to a new
At the same time, however, employer 401(k) matches are shrinking. Fewer employers offer matches for their 401(k) plans this year (81%) compared with 2025 (85%). And the average maximum employer match for traditional 401(k) plans is 6.11%, down from last year’s average of 6.3%. “Employers are evolving their benefits strategies to meet new workforce realities,” Ragan Decker, director of commercial research at SHRM, told Yahoo Finance.
The employer match has long been a coveted boost for retirement savers. And to be clear, most employers are contributing closer to 4.5% on average, according to a recent Vanguard report. “A drop in employer match availability sounds like a crisis, but the real story is that most workers aren’t capturing their employer’s match,” Jeff Judge, a financial planner with Chesapeake Financial Planners in Forest Hill, Md., told Yahoo Finance. “If your match shrinks, the answer isn’t to panic. It’s to raise your own percentage deferral rate to fill the gap,” he said.