4 ms·

Having a somewhat paranoid personality, I find myself wondering if auto-enroll and (especially) auto-escalation - which my job has - are designed with the emplo

Having a somewhat paranoid personality, I find myself wondering if auto-enroll and (especially) auto-escalation - which my job has - are designed with the employee's well-being in mind, or just a ploy to prop up the stock market?

jbtule 10y ago
There are a lot of rules in regards to auto-enroll and qualified investments. If you are auto-enrolled, you are going to be in a mix of bonds and stocks appropriate to your age (conservatively), or just a balanced fund. So not really designed to prop the stock market.
hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago
Honestly, which do you think is most likely? 1) Your HR department is part of a nation-wide conspiracy to prop up stock market prices. 2) Your HR department is trying to help their employees be properly prepared for retirement.
- forgottenpass 10y ago
  3) HR don't give a fuck, and are just told to do the thing the business wants to do because it is incenivized to do so. The benefit to the employees and ability for HR to feel positive about their position in the role are arbitrary. The employees could also suffer when business wants to do something that negatively impacts them, and HR can be used to carry that out too. e.g: Switching to a shittier health plan to save money.
- TheCoelacanth 10y ago
  The most likely is 3) Your HR department doesn't want their highly compensated employees' contributions to be rejected because the plan is top-heavy and is too cheap to make a safe harbor contribution to avoid that.
zeroer 10y ago
You're too paranoid. I think it's more easily explained by the company executives acting in self-interested ways to get participation up so that the 401(k) plans don't run afoul of anti-discrimination rules.
qntty 10y ago
See koolba's comment: >Companies auto enroll people into 401(k) programs because of participation requirements. For "highly paid employees" (i.e. executives) to be allowed to contribute to a 401(k), there requires a minimum level of participation from the rest of the workforce at the company.

jbtule 10y ago

There are a lot of rules in regards to auto-enroll and qualified investments. If you are auto-enrolled, you are going to be in a mix of bonds and stocks appropriate to your age (conservatively), or just a balanced fund. So not really designed to prop the stock market.

hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago

Honestly, which do you think is most likely? 1) Your HR department is part of a nation-wide conspiracy to prop up stock market prices. 2) Your HR department is trying to help their employees be properly prepared for retirement.

forgottenpass 10y ago
3) HR don't give a fuck, and are just told to do the thing the business wants to do because it is incenivized to do so. The benefit to the employees and ability for HR to feel positive about their position in the role are arbitrary. The employees could also suffer when business wants to do something that negatively impacts them, and HR can be used to carry that out too. e.g: Switching to a shittier health plan to save money.
TheCoelacanth 10y ago
The most likely is 3) Your HR department doesn't want their highly compensated employees' contributions to be rejected because the plan is top-heavy and is too cheap to make a safe harbor contribution to avoid that.

zeroer 10y ago

You're too paranoid. I think it's more easily explained by the company executives acting in self-interested ways to get participation up so that the 401(k) plans don't run afoul of anti-discrimination rules.

qntty 10y ago

See koolba's comment: >Companies auto enroll people into 401(k) programs because of participation requirements. For "highly paid employees" (i.e. executives) to be allowed to contribute to a 401(k), there requires a minimum level of participation from the rest of the workforce at the company.