PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 30

Southwest Airlines
Total Retirement Offering
Plan at a Glance
TOTAL PLAN ASSETS/PARTICIPANTS: $12 billion/60,000
PARTICIPATION RATE: 93%
AVERAGE DEFERRAL RATE: 9.7%
DEFAULT DEFERRAL RATE: 3%
DEFAULT INVESTMENT: Age-appropriate Vanguard Target
Retirement Select Trust
AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT/ESCALATION: Yes/No
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION: 100% up to 9.3%, plus profit sharing
at the company's headquarters in Dallas, says, this past year,
Southwest invested over $1 billion in employee retirement
savings accounts through the two plans. " We want employees to
understand and appreciate that. The culture of the company and
the culture of the plan are one in the same. "
According to Parham, " We're not just working with
Vice President and Chief People Officer Julie Weber
T
he Southwest Airlines company culture is reflected in the
care the retirement team takes with the company's plan
participants. Southwest believes its people come first, which, in
turn, leads to happy customers and shareholders.
Southwest offers two qualified plans. One is a 401(k) plan,
wherein employees can receive a dollar-for-dollar match up to
9.3% of their salary deferrals. The other is a profit-sharing plan,
started in 1974.
For the past three years, employees in the latter have received
an allocation ranging from 10% to 15.6% of compensation. For the
2018 plan year, for example, the profit-sharing percentage for each
participant was 10.8% of eligible compensation. Of this amount,
10% was contributed to the Southwest Airlines Profit Sharing
Plan, and the remainder was paid in cash outside of the plan.
Elaine Parham, a senior compensation and benefits manager
30 PLANSPONSOR.com April - May 2019
resources and assets, but with people who are important to us.
So we're given free rein by the executive team to create new ways
to connect with [them] and to help them understand and value
the investment Southwest has made. "
The company has a broad spectrum of employees-from
entry-level ramp agents, customer service agents and call center
employees to skilled mechanics, flight attendants and pilots-
working in the 100 U.S. cities where the airline operates.
Embedded Educator
In the last year, Southwest introduced a dedicated retirement
education counselor from Empower who is fully embedded
within the Southwest retirement team and offers workshops,
one-on-one sessions and educational guidance. In her first year
with Southwest, she conducted 66 live workshops, contributed to
23 pre-retirement sessions, participated in 21 benefit fairs, and
provided recorded educational sessions that were viewed by over
2,300 employees.
" She sits in on a lot of our meetings when we talk about
strategy and plan operations, and provides her insight, " Parham
says. " She engages well with our participants and is our eyes and
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