Some companies reducing or suspending 401(k) match

Several companies already have announced plans to reduce or suspend the 401(k) company match:

Company: Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc.

Ticker: DTG

Business: Car rentals

Home base: Tulsa, Okla.

Action: Reported in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 5 that it had saved about $1.8 million in the first six months of 2008 by suspending the matching contributions in the first quarter of the year. Company matched employee contribution up to 6 percent of salary, said spokesman Fred Fleischner.

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Company: General Motors Corp.

Ticker: GM

Business: Car manufacturing

Home base: Detroit, Mich.

Action: Spokesman Dan Flores confirms that GM suspended company matches to 401(k) plans for its 32,000 eligible salaried workers. GM matched up to 4 percent of worker pay.

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Company: Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc.

Ticker: FRNT

Business: Commercial airline

Home Base: Denver

Action: Spokeswoman Lindsey Purves said the company discontinued its match June 1 as part of its effort to cut costs as it works its way through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Company put in 50 cents for each dollar employee contributed up to 10 percent of pay.

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Company: Lee Enterprises Inc.

Ticker: LEE

Business: Newspapers and Web sites.

Home base: Davenport, Iowa

Action: Chief Financial Officer Carl Schmidt said the company is reducing its 401(k) match but it varies from newspaper to newspaper, so details were not released. "It's an important element of our overall cost reduction program for 2009," he said. Lee, which publishes 49 daily newspapers and 300 weeklies in 23 states and operates Web sites, has 7,600 full-time equivalent employees. Schmidt said the move would affect a vast majority of workers.

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Company name: A.H. Belo Corp.

Ticker AHC

Business: Newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle.

Home base: Dallas

Action: Spokeswoman Maribell Correa said the company is maintaining its 6 percent match on employee base salaries in the 401(k) plan, but is suspending a 2 percent profit-sharing contribution it makes on top of the initial company match until the company returns to profitability.

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