Please participate in the future contract survey.

You will never "make" that. Here's why:

Assume your gross earnings for 2018 are $300,000 and you are under 50 and contribute the maximum of $18.500 to your 401K.

300,000 - 18,500= 281,500

281,500 is your taxable amount

Federal Taxes (Married Filling Jointly) - 50,379
(This rate expires in 2024)
Social Security-7,960
(Cap amount at the present time)
Medicare Tax/Surtax- 5,355
(There is no Cap on Medicare)
State Income Tax- ?

You only "made" 236,306 less any State Income Tax

If you reach the 12 year pay by the amendable date and the next Contract takes 5 years to negotiate you must take inflation into account. Subtract about 9,000 for a 5 year window.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

Math is hard, arithmetic doesn't have to be.

After my nap and cookies and milk I'll be doing the arithmetic that demonstrates how much a 10% non-taxable employer match is worth.

That was an awful lot of work to say you pay taxes and then you die.

Short nap. Had to get up to yell at the kids on the lawn. My wife bought Pecan Sandies and skim milk-sheesh. (Spiced it up with Boost)

Here's how a non-taxable Employer contribution of 10% would look with a gross earning of $300,000 per year with a 5 year duration.

10% of 300,000 is 30,000

If you achieved an 8% return on 30,000 re-invested annually over a 5 year time frame you would have, assuming $0 at the beginning and a 30,000 contribution on the last day of the 5th year:

$175,998.03

This gets even better:

Lets assume you work here for exactly that amount of time. Your big plans to buy a Jimmy John's and a Jiffy Lube by the time you are 40 come true. Jackpot! You contribute $0 for 30 1/2 years at 8% (you have to mandatory withdrawals beginning at age 70 1/2). How much was your Employer contribution worth?

$1,771,007.79

With a time horizon of only 5 years you're nearly a multi-millionaire.

https://www.investor.gov/additional-...est-calculator

Very persuasive reply.
Please don't participate in the next contract survey.

And you clearly were an accountant since I fell asleep half way through your very verbose description of net vs gross pay.

Skim milk...my son in law calls it chalk water....
As some of us found out in the short staffing debacle in 2016/17...max IRS contribution is 19.5k pr yr. Whether you make 300k, 400k, or 600k....19.5k per year.

There's also no replacement for getting an early start because of compounding interest. Some of the pilots I have a lot of respect for at K4 own rental properties. You can earn a good enough income with that and as you get older or lack the ability to take care of them, hire a decent property manager to run it for you, or simply cash out...

You're mixing up employee contribution max and employer or total contribution max. I believe total contribution for 2018 was like 55k for the 401k.

So if the company contributes 15% with no match required, and you put none of your own money into the 401k, you will not cap that until you make 365,000ish a year.

You need to make 250,000ish at 15% a year plus contribute your yearly max to hit that 55k.

I kept it simple. If you get the 30,000 per year by contributing 2,500 per month the total is greater. If you add the max 401K for your age bracket to the mix added monthly the numbers at 70 1/2 are huge. If you use the 50 year S&P 500 historical average return then the numbers almost become astronomically high. The maximum total combined contribution for 2018 is 57,000 or so. I understand your numbers and with a big enough Contribution there's no need for a 401K match at all since the tax bracket creep lets the Employer contribute less.