Employer never enrolled or offered enrollment in 401k
employment attorney Indiana Jul 30, 2026
Location: Indiana - Contracted w2 employee since mid 2023 - contract states 401k with applicable 401k match of 3% dollar for dollar immediate 100% vestment after 1 year of service (would have been eligible July 1, 2024) - employer never made available any option to enroll or elect deferral (and I, stupidly, never asked). Just discovering issue now with new employee starting with same contract. Discovered a 401k has existed this entire time and I have been an eligible employee for 2 years. - I have asked for SPD, but have not received it yet - what elements should I be looking for? - applicable 3% match would have been about 9k/yr so essentially 22.5k of lost match money alone. (This is all I really care to get back, as this is what I feel like I lost) - I made maximum yearly employee contributions for ‘25 and ‘26 (23.5; 24.5) to a separate unrelated Solo 401k from my side job with no employer contributions as I was unaware I had a W2 employer sponsored plan (was never offered). Concern here is even if I was enrolled asap, I now can’t even make any more contributions to get a match for the 2nd half of 2026 as employee contribution is already maxed. - Am I owed compensation? If so, how much, and by when? Or am I just SOL for not asking on my own? How far back can I go for any compensation? -Any links to a process I should follow or anything I should know of would be appreciated. My company doesn’t actually have an HR. It’s a small business with just “a guy who does payroll”
