Retirement
401(k) Employer Match
See what your employer's match is worth this year, whether you're claiming all of it, and what any part you're missing would have grown into.
The formula
The IRS caps what you can put in each year and adjusts the cap annually, so check the current figure before setting a high percentage. It is well above what any of these formulas need.
What this means
Your plan will pay $2,400 this year if you put in 5% of your pay. At 3% you are claiming $1,800 of it and leaving $600 behind. Closing that takes about $100 a month before tax — and less than that out of your actual paycheck, because the contribution comes out before income tax is figured. The Paycheck & Take-Home Pay calculator shows the real cost on your own numbers.
This is the one part of your pay you have to claim in writing. It is not a market return and it is not a bonus — it is compensation your employer has already budgeted, and it goes back to them if you do not take it. If money is genuinely tight, raising your contribution by a single point still claims part of it, and most plans let you change the number in a few clicks.
Two things this cannot see: vesting and eligibility. Employer money often becomes fully yours only after a few years of service, either all at once or in slices, and some plans make you wait months before matching at all. Your summary plan description spells out both, and neither changes what the match is worth — only when it is yours to keep.
Build on it
These are estimates to help you think — not personalized legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a promise of any result.
This calculator turns your employer's match formula into a dollar figure: what the plan will pay you this year, whether you're claiming all of it, and what any part you're leaving behind would have grown into by the time you need it.
Why it matters: the match is the only raise at work you get by filling in a form. It is money your employer has already budgeted for you, and if you don't contribute enough to trigger it, it simply stays with them. People who miss it usually either assume their job doesn't match or have never checked the percentage that would claim all of it — this shows you both.
How to use it
Enter your pay and what you put in now
Your pay before taxes, and your own contribution as a percent of it — both are on your pay stub or your plan's website. If you're not contributing yet, enter 0; that's the case this tool was built for.
Pick your match formula
The list covers the common ones. Yours is in your summary plan description, and HR can tell you in a sentence. If it doesn't match a preset, set the two rows underneath — a formula like “100% of the first 3%, then 50% of the next 2%” is two rows.
Read the first number
If you're leaving money behind, that's the figure at the top, along with the extra percentage of pay that would claim it and what it costs a month. If you're claiming all of it, the number is what you're getting.
Behind the numbers
The match is pay, not a return
A market return is uncertain and takes years. A match is compensation your employer has already set aside, paid the moment you contribute. That's why it comes before almost everything else in the order of operations — including, for most people, paying extra on debt that isn't at a punishing rate.
Why the formula has two steps
Many plans pay full price on the first slice of your pay and half price on the next — often 100% of the first 3% and 50% of the next 2%. The reason is that this shape satisfies a federal safe-harbor rule that lets the plan skip some annual testing. For you it means the value of each extra dollar drops once you pass the first step, and drops to zero past the last one.
Vesting: when it becomes yours
Your own contributions are yours from the first day. The employer's side often isn't: plans can require a few years of service before the match is fully yours, either all at once at a cliff or in slices each year. Leaving before then forfeits the unvested part. It doesn't change whether to claim the match — it changes what a job change costs.
Contribution limits exist, and they move
The IRS caps what you can put into a workplace plan each year and adjusts the cap annually, with an extra allowance once you're older. The caps sit well above what any match formula requires, so they rarely affect this calculation — but check the current year's figure before setting a high percentage.
The math behind it
Your contribution is your pay times your percentage. The match walks the formula's steps in order: the employer pays the first step's rate on the slice of pay in the first step's band, then the second step's rate on the next band, and nothing above the last band. The most the formula can pay is the match at the point where the bands run out — the difference between that and what you're getting is what you're leaving behind. The growth figure takes the employer's dollars alone, spread monthly, and compounds them at the rate you assume.
Worked example
$60,000 in pay, contributing 3%, on a formula of 100% of the first 3% then 50% of the next 2%. You put in $1,800 and the employer matches it dollar for dollar: $1,800. But the formula pays up to $2,400 at a 5% contribution, so $600 a year is going unclaimed. Two more points of pay is about $100 a month before tax — and that $600 a year, compounded for 25 years at 7%, is about $40,500.
Contribute to the number, not the dollar
You don't need to know your plan's dollar figures to claim the match — you need one number, the percentage where the match stops growing. Set your contribution to at least that, once, and every raise from then on increases the match automatically without you touching anything.
Common questions
How much do I need to contribute to get the full match?
Whatever percentage your formula's steps add up to — 3% for “100% of the first 3%”, 6% for “50% of the first 6%”, 5% for the two-step version. The calculator works it out and shows how far you are from it. Contributing more than that is often a good idea, but it earns no additional employer money.
Should I take the match while I'm paying off debt?
In most cases yes, and this is where MoneyBricks differs from advice that says to pause all investing until the debt is gone. A dollar-for-dollar match pays you 100 cents the moment you contribute; almost no consumer debt costs that much in a year. The exception is a genuine emergency — a payday loan spiral, a car about to be repossessed — where cash this week beats everything.
What if I change jobs before the match vests?
You keep every dollar you contributed and whatever share of the employer's money has vested; the rest goes back to the plan. It's worth knowing your schedule before you accept an offer, because leaving a month before a vesting date can cost real money — and it's a reasonable thing to raise with a new employer when negotiating a start date.
Go deeper
The calculator gives you a number. The Workplace Benefits Brick teaches you what to do with it, in plain English. And if you’re not sure where to start, the free BrickScore Assessment checks your whole foundation in about 5 minutes.