I remember sitting at my desk about 10 years ago when a colleague told me she’d had a financial epiphany. I leaned in, waiting for something dramatic. 

“Max your match at your workplace retirement plan,” she said.

Huh? I didn’t realize that some people didn’t do this. I wish I knew to tell her years before...I didn’t know yet that I had a special investing skill!

Now, I have no doubt some of you reading already know about this. If that’s you, great! But I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t bring it up. If you’re not maxing out your employer match, you’re leaving money you already earned in your employer’s pocket. Do 👏 Not 👏 Do 👏 This!

Also, even if you understand this in principle, it’s possible that you think you’re maxing out your plan, but actually aren’t! 

In working with hundreds of nurses on this, I’ve seen that many nurses miss out on getting their full retirement match because frequently, employers write these policies in ways that are very difficult to understand! 

So, to make sure you get the pay you deserve, here’s a rundown of how you can make sure to get everything that you’re entitled to!

What is an employer match?

First, the basics: an employer match is a simple, valuable benefit many nurses get from our workplace. When you contribute a percentage of your paycheck into a retirement account, your employer also contributes a set percentage, up to a limit. 

In other words, your employer says: “For every dollar you save, we’ll add a little extra too (within limits).” 

This is money you get in addition to your normal pay!

For example, a common setup is something like, the employer will match “50% of your own contributions up to a maximum of 4% of your eligible earnings.”  We’ll use that as our example here. I know that’s confusing. I’ll explain clearly below. 

For now let’s start by sorting out whether you have a match.

Determining if you have a match.

The first step is to determine whether you are entitled to a match. To do that, simply check your contract or your union negotiations. Your employer’s HR department will also be able to tell you.

If you do have a match, make sure you’re clear on two things:

1. Your contribution percent. This is the percentage of your paycheck you choose to set aside for retirement. If you don’t know it, log into your retirement account, check your employee portal, or email HR. Write it down so you don’t have to hunt it down again later!
2. Your employer’s contribution percent. What will they actually give you? This should be spelled out in your contract or union agreement. One reason you want to be clear on this is so you can verify that they’re holding up their end of the deal. It’s easy to assume that employers will do this automatically, but I have personally found errors on my paycheck on multiple occasions and nurses I work with report problems all the time!

Break down the contractual word salad: Max the match.

Here’s the goal: always max out your employer match. No exceptions. It’s money you’ve already earned—why would you hand it back to your employer?

The problem is, employers often make this more complicated than it needs to be. Sometimes the wording on these policies is often very confusing.

Using our example of a match of 50% of up to 4% of your salary, the wording is often something like:

“The employer will match 50% of your own contributions up to a maximum of 4% of your eligible earnings.”

Ugh. What does that mean? 

Essentially, this means that–in addition to your normal income–they are willing to contribute up to 4% of your pay to your retirement fund with each paycheck. However, they will only chip in 50% of the amount that you put in yourself. So, in order to get them to give you that extra 4%, you have to put in 8% yourself.

If that’s still confusing, here’s a trick to gain clarity: in order to determine how much you should put in to “match the max,” take the maximum amount that your employer will contribute (usually a percentage of your salary) and divide it by their match percentage. For example:

“Employer will match 50% of your contributions up to 4% of your salary” → 4% ÷ 50% =  8% paycheck contribution

“Employer will match 25% of your contributions up to 4%” → 4% ÷ 25% = 16% paycheck contribution

“Employer will match 100% of your contributions up to 4%” → 4% ÷ 100% = 4% paycheck contribution

Boom. That’s what it takes to claim every dollar your employer is legally obligated to give you.

Once you understand how much it takes to “match the max,” adjust your contribution in your retirement account portal, or if this is all still confusing, ask HR to help! Just make sure you’re not leaving any of your hard-earned money on the table!

Why It Matters

Missing out on a couple of dollars a week might not sound like much. But stretched over decades, with investment growth, you could be giving up tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of dollars. That’s money you already earned, and time you’ve already given up. You worked hard for it. Don’t let your employer keep it!

Maxing your employer match is just one tiny step toward financial freedom. If you’re ready to take the next step and turn small, smart moves into real, lasting change, I’ve put together a free training just for nurses. It’s called:

“Fellow Nurses: How to Become Work Optional in One Hour a Month Without Burning Out, Wasting Time on One-Size-Fits-All Finance Strategies, or Falling for Bogus Investment Ploys.”

You get access to a 90 minute training which means you’ll learn how to turn your nursing salary into wealth. The real value is you'll see an avenue to working less and still providing for your family and creating lasting memories. 

If you’ve read this far, you already know that small, smart steps—like maxing your employer match—add up.  This training is the next step to turning those small wins into long-term freedom.