I discovered neither my contributions nor my employer’s have been going into my 401(k) — what can I do?

When your employer is doing something wrong, and those actions directly impact your financial livelihood, how do you know if it’s intentional or just an honest mistake? Does it make a difference?

One company manager had to deal with just this question while trying to soothe the fears and frustrations of those he managed. He took his concerns to the r/managers community on Reddit. Here is what they said.

The Question

A company with a 401K plan.

The author of the post says that since May of 2024, their company hasn’t made any contribution to their 401(k) accounts. Also, none of the people they manage have seen any of their contributions deposited either. The company continues to withhold the money from their paychecks, but the money isn’t going into their retirement accounts.

This includes both the employee contribution and the company match.

They reached out to the company, but didn’t hear anything for three weeks. Instead, they were told by HR that “they are working on it”.

Naturally, it was an extremely frustrating and scary situation to be in not only as a manager but as an employee. Please remember, of course, that all the comments and advice in this article and the original thread are opinions. You should always speak to an expert before taking any action against an employer.

The Community Response

The money for your 401K is yours.

The first thing to remember is that the HR department of your company is not your friend, it exists to protect the company. End of story. Even if the HR department knows that something is wrong, or that someone has made a mistake, or even if there is illegal activity happening, they will not disclose that information to you. In fact, they will actively recommend taking the actions you should take in this situation.

These actions are as follows: contact the Department of Labor and the IRS. Both of these departments take this kind of issue very seriously, and if there is shady business going on at your company, this is the only way to reveal it and fix it.

While there was a plethora of advice and comments about other things the manager could do (brush off their resume, keep documentation of everything, and so on), it is important to remember that not paying correct wages is a crime, even if it is an honest mistake. If it was an accident, the company, naturally, would not want to embarrass itself, but being transparent is key to making sure it is fixed property and the employees don’t get nervous or angry. The manager and author of this post doesn’t have any control over this, of course, and the longer the company stays quiet the more it seems it is doing something illegal.

In these cases, whether it is an accident or the company is using those funds to pay its bills, there is no difference to the IRS.

In the end, remember your loyalty is to yourself and your family, not the company. The company will go to any end and do anything it can in order to protect itself and make more money. Don’t sacrifice your retirement because you don’t want to cause trouble. File reports with the regulatory agencies and get what is owed to you.