Of course. The point of 401k auto-enrollment isn't to help the lower paid employees. It's to make sure that the 401k plan passes the IRS's non-discrimination te

Of course. The point of 401k auto-enrollment isn't to help the lower paid employees. It's to make sure that the 401k plan passes the IRS's non-discrimination tests. If people who the IRS classes as non-highly compensated employees don't contribute enough compared to how much the people classed as highly compensated employees, then the company would have to either have to make the highly compensated employees (who they need to keep happy more than they do the non-highly compensated employees) take back some of their 401k contributions, which piss them off, or they have to spend some of their own money to bring the plan into compliance, which costs them money. Auto-enrolling your employees and hoping that enough of them don't bother to opt-out to let the plan pass the tests is free.