Employee deferral plus a single-tier match
A common employer formula pays a stated percentage of the employee’s deferral, up to a first slice of compensation recognized by the plan. If the plan matches 50% of the first 6%, deferring 6% captures the full modeled match and deferring 10% adds employee money without adding employer money. Enter the compensation base defined by the plan, which can differ from gross salary. Savings-goal and FIRE pages grow a balance; this page estimates one year of contributions.
Matched share of compensation = the smaller of deferral percent and match-on percent
Employer match = plan compensation × matched share × match rate
Match left on the table = plan compensation × max(0, match-on percent − deferral percent) × match rate
Total contribution = employee deferral + employer match
Example
On $100,000 of compensation used by the plan, a 10% employee deferral is $10,000. A 50% match on the first 6% adds $3,000 from the employer, for $13,000 total. Deferring only 4% would be $4,000 from the employee and $2,000 of match, leaving $1,000 of the modeled match unused.
Plan terms and annual limits stay outside the arithmetic
The plan document controls eligible compensation, payroll-period matching, year-end true-ups, vesting, and tiered formulas. IRS employee-deferral, catch-up, compensation, and combined limits also change by year. This page applies one annual single-tier formula and does not load those rules or dollar caps. Compare the result with the current plan terms and applicable limits.