FedEx Corp. is overhauling its retirement program as it adjusts to broader changes in the workplace.
FedEx will stop offering a guaranteed pension for new hires, replacing it with an expanded 401(k) it believes will make it more competitive in the recruitment marketplace.
Under the new plan, which will be launched at the start of 2021, the shipping giant will contribute up to 8% of employee salaries, if employees contribute 6% of their salary. The current 401(k) matches up to 3.5% of salaries.
“As we continue to evolve FedEx retirement benefits to remain competitive, we recognize that more and more people understand the value of a 401(k) structure,” FedEx human resources executive Judy Edge said in a memo to employees.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a FedEx spokesman, said the change isn’t intended to save money. “It’s really more about evolution of our benefits and being competitive as an employer,” he told the Daily Memphian.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, “FedEx is part of a shrinking group of U.S. companies still allowing employees to accrue traditional pension payments.” Its chief rival, United Parcel Service , closed its pension plan to new workers in 2016.
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With the FedEx employee stock option benefit, their employees don’t need a pension… I wish I could have gotten on with FedEx instead of the postal circus…. I’d be retired by now and playing golf every day at an exclusive country club.
Mind your own business
You had better believe that the executives will still be offered a retirement plan. It’s just the employees that work everyday that must fend for themselves! just like Herbert Spencer once said ” Survival of the fittest”. Every other employer expects their employee to take care of themselves. However they coddle the important big time operators!