> Most employers did it for decades before they were legally required to.
They also had pension plans, but these days, those are rare outside of government jobs. I wouldn't be surprised if companies clawed them back as the threat from unions dwindled.
United Airlines declared bankruptcy to get out of paying into a pension plan after not paying the proper amount into them for year so they could appear to be more profitable.
A 401k is probably better since the company is paying funds directly to your account, IOW they can't underfund it.
That said, Raytheon ended up fucking over their 401k plan. Raytheon matched in company stock and required that 401k owners held the company stock for 3 years once it was put into the plan. It worked great until 2005 when Raytheon's stock dropped to 1/3 of the price on news of gross of mismanagement. Employees couldn't get out of the stock, and were forced to swallow the loss.
While I will be the recipient of a decent pension that probably wasn't really on my radar early-ish career, defined benefit private pensions are not really great overall.
They tend to reward long tenures at companies. Even with government sort-of guarantees they have risk of insolvency. And ultimately it's just not your money.
They also had pension plans, but these days, those are rare outside of government jobs. I wouldn't be surprised if companies clawed them back as the threat from unions dwindled.