US Executives Amass $9bn Tax-Free Retirement Funds While Workers Face Limits

The top five executives at S&P 500 firms have accumulated nearly $9bn in tax-free retirement savings accounts, while many of their employees struggle to save for retirement. These "top hat" plans allow unlimited tax-deferred retirement while ordinary workers face strict limits on their 401(k) retirement plan contributions. The report found that at many of these companies, a sizeable percentage of workers – in some cases as much as half – had no money in their 401(k)s. The mean value of US retirement accounts was $255,200 in 2019, but less than 40% of families in the bottom half of the Fed’s income brackets were enrolled in a retirement plan.