Prior to switching to my current company and qualifying for their 401k plan as of August 1, the last time I was employeed with a company who had a retirement plan was in 2011, and I started with them all the way back in 2004. So I have no idea what kind of delay, if any, I saw when those paychecks & deductions started. But things with the current employer strike me as odd...
Starting August 1, 18% of my pay is going to the 401k. We are paid every two weeks. I have been checking the 401k every work day (TRowePrice includes a note about the 'as of' date of the balance and it only updates during the week). Yesterday afternoon was the first time it actually reflected my deposit amount.
Here's our pay schedule:
- July 31: direct deposit for August 1 pay check hits the bank. No 401k deduction was made.
- August 2: receive pay stub (by mail, which is another WTF?, but I digress) reflecting no 401k deductions
- August 14: direct deposit for August 15 check hits the bank. Correct 18% deduction is reflected in the amount.
- August 16: receive pay stub reflecting 18% 401k deduction
- August 25: 401k deposit is first seen in T. Rowe Price account
A full eleven days between when it was withheld from my check and when it made it into my account. Is this typical? It seems fairly minor, but when expounded across a year's pay, that represents an expected return of $50 to $75 that I would miss purely due to delays in my money hitting my account.
My employer is a large, global corporation, so I do not expect that they are doing anything technically illegal here. But it strikes me as very odd to say the least. And if they are making $25 per year per employee (since my amount is clearly on the high end of what people would deduct), we're talking about $1.5M in interest/earnings that they get instead of the employees.
Am I off my rocker to be concerned about this? Is a delay like this normal?