Sort of... Since 5 points of that 8% is profit sharing, it plays into Blue's deceptive math.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but United and Delta don't reduce their profit sharing payouts to fund 401(k) contributions. Therefore those 5 points should not be considered retirement, rather a portion of profit sharing that is placed into your 401(k) by diktat. (Running total... 13 minus 5, so now we are at 8% with our matching contribution, half what DL/UA get without any matching required.)

As for the matching: If someone is adamant about considering the 5% match when comparing to Delta and United, you must make this apples to apples. They don't have to contribute a penny of their income to receive 16% from their employer. Since we must defer 5% of our income to receive the match, you must reduce your gross income by 5% to make the comparison equal. But if you don't match, which is your discretion, you obviously wouldn't need to adjust your gross and your net company contribution less profit sharing would be 3%.

Hopefully WhiteHammer could hold on for all that arithmetic and reasoning.