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This Company Realized Their 401(k) Match Only Helped the Highest Salaried Employees, So They Killed It. Here's What Happened. Looking to improve the lives of their employees at all levels, Bay Area-based Heath Ceramics tried an experiment in more equitable benefits.

This story appears in the June 2021 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Zohar Lazar

How do we take action?

We asked ourselves that question all last year, as the pandemic triggered painful layoffs and worldwide protests against racial injustice got us thinking deeper about who we were as a company. As we dug into our own decisions at our business, looking for ways to improve our employees' lives, we never expected the process would end where it did — by eliminating a 401(k) matching program we were always so proud of.

But once we crunched the numbers, it made sense. More of our employees would benefit if we did something different.