--- title: Donald Trump Employees' 401(k) Plans Come With a Huge Catch description: Real estate mogul and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump doesn't let his employees open a 401(k) account until they have been employed by Trump for a year. authors: - name: Susie Poppick url: https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 117 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/susiepoppick former_staff: true published: '2015-07-07T17:41:39.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T10:19:57.000Z' section: Retirement tags: - 401(k) - 401k plan - Donald Trump - employees - match - pubdesk - Retirement - trump word_count: 192 canonical: https://money.com/donald-trump-401k/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![trump-401k-plan-big-catch-year](https://img.money.com/2015/07/trump-401k-plan-big-catch-year.jpg?crop=302px%2C0px%2C2698px%2C1518px&quality=85) *Presidential candidate and businessman Donald Trump* It turns out that Donald Trump—the real estate mogul and [Republican presidential hopeful](https://money.com/donald-trump-bankruptcy-republican-presidential-debate/) who has promised to be "the [greatest jobs president](https://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/) that God ever created"—is a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to his employees' retirement plans. Workers who are eligible for Trump's company 401(k) cannot actually open an account until they have been employed by the tycoon for a year, Bloomberg [reports](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-07/donald-trump-s-employees-don-t-share-wealth-in-401-k-plan). And the employer match—a generous-enough 4.5% for employees who invest at least 6% of their earnings—doesn't kick in for six years. (That's the longest amount of time allowed by [United States law](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-07/donald-trump-s-employees-don-t-share-wealth-in-401-k-plan)). While these policies may simply signal how much Trump [values loyalty](https://fortune.com/2015/07/06/donald-trump-macys/), one other important 401(k) feature is lacking in the plan: automatic enrollment. [Studies](https://money.com/retirement-401k-simple-choices-merrill-lynch/) have shown that by automatically signing employees up for savings, employers can greatly boost how much workers end up having for retirement. "If the plan really wanted to facilitate employee savings, it would institute automatic enrollment, reduce or eliminate the eligibility requirement, and vest employees in the employer match more quickly," Harvard Kennedy School professor Brigitte Madrian told Bloomberg*.* *Read next: 8 Epic Business Failures with Donald Trump’s Name on Them* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-401k/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Retirement", "item": "https://money.com/retirement/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "401(k)", "item": "https://money.com/401k/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Donald Trump Employees' 401(k) Plans Come With a Huge Catch" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-401k/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/donald-trump-401k/", "name": "Donald Trump Employees' 401(k) Plans Come With a Huge Catch", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-07-07T17:41:39.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-401k/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-401k/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:19:57.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Donald Trump Employees' 401(k) Plans Come With a Huge Catch", "articleSection": "Retirement", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/07/trump-401k-plan-big-catch-year.jpg?crop=302px%2C0px%2C2698px%2C1518px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "trump-401k-plan-big-catch-year" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susie Poppick", "url": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_poppick.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "susie_poppick@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/susiepoppick" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-07-07T17:41:39.000Z", "description": "Real estate mogul and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump doesn't let his employees open a 401(k) account until they have been employed by Trump for a year.", "abstract": "Real estate mogul and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump doesn't let his employees open a 401(k) account until they have been employed by Trump for a year.", "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-401k/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:19:57.000Z", "wordCount": 192, "keywords": [ "401(k)", "401k plan", "Donald Trump", "employees", "match", "pubdesk", "Retirement", "trump" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Retirement", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "401(k)", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/401(k)" ] } ] } ] } ```