Older folks can try to ride it out. But if you are younger person you need to look externally for opportunities. Going from 4.5 to 3.5 % is a ~23% cut on 401k match, plus any lost compound interest. Also factor in medical premium increases for next year. Your financial position is now worse, it doesn't make financial sense to continue here (which is obviously what they want so they have to pay less severance). Yea the job market is tight and not everyone can find another job, but financially, you owe it to yourself to look around as you are doing same work for less $. I am not even going to get into bonus and raises because we all know that will be close to 0.
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Wow, you posted this terrible math in at least 2 places without realizing how silly it is?
If the max employer contribution yearly for an employee that is under 50 is roughly 6800, isn’t a 1% decrease just $68? How are you getting 23% cut of match?
Getting what amounts to a 1% cut in pay is hard to take, especially when pay raises have been minimal and promotions rare.
I agree that younger employees would be wise to look elsewhere. Keep your skills up-to-date and be willing to switch gigs.
Stock never rebounded (at all)...I'm sure they will adjust the severance pay (years of service/weeks of pay) for 1/1/26, they did it for 1/1/25. The 401k decrease is pretty cr-ppy.
True, I work on a team where everyone is significantly older than me. Asked my manager about the 401k decrease and what other total compensation cuts are expected to be seen come Jan 2026, she pretended like she didn’t get the email or read it. I think next year will be way worse and they are definitely going to be cutting more. I got a better opportunity elsewhere so I will not be staying, this place is getting worse and worse aggressively fast….