Two Deductions From Gross Pay For Matching Contribution?

[Guest jbergstrom]

I was looking over a client's paystub recently and saw they were participating in their company's 401k plan. (They're puting in 5% of their pay.) I also saw he had a 401k loan repayment (may or may not be relevant). Here's the question: there are two deductions from his gross pay- one in the amount of $53.76 (5% of his gross)- this one is labelled as "401K Match", and another $53.75 labelled as "401K Unmatched". They are both in the same column.

As I mentioned earlier, he is contributing 5% of his gross, which I assume to be one or the other.

At first blush it looks as though the company is taking out their "match" from his pay. (His net pay equals his gross less all taxes AND the TWO contributions- his and the company's "match".)

Am I not seeing something?

[GMK]

Just guessing, but ...

it looks like the one labeled "401k Match" is the amount the company matches,

and the "401k Unmatched" is the amount the company does not match (the loan repayment?),

and what we are not seeing is the company's match amount, which is not necessarily listed on the pay stub.

[masteff]

there are two deductions from his gross pay- one in the amount of $53.76 (5% of his gross)- this one is labelled as "401K Match", and another $53.75 labelled as "401K Unmatched". They are both in the same column.

I'd bet $5 that he's really contributing 10%, 5% that's matched and 5% that's unmatched. Paystub descriptions are notoriously confusing due the limited space and the nearsightedness of those who create them. For whatever reason, their payroll system must calculate employee contributions in two pieces; the most likely reason being that they have a complex match calc and it was easier to make it work that way.

EDIT: Aw, GMK beat me to it.

[Guest jbergstrom]

The 10% contrib was the very first thing I thought of too. But when asked, my client was adament that he was only doing 5%.....but he's double checking. I guess the silver lining around that cloud is that he was contributing more than he thought! (Hopefully he won't scale it back now.)

[david rigby]

Possibilities:

- He might think he is contributing 5%, but the "payroll dept" thinks he is contributing 10%.

- The suggestion in original post w/r/t deducting the actual match. Not the first company that tried to get away with that. But you won't know until you ask someone else, either another employee or in the payroll dept.

[JanetM]

Other places to check are the W-2 and quarterly stmt. Look to see if the unmatched it reducing loan balance. Check the W-2 to see what the contributions were last year.