PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019 - 36

Badger Mining Corporation
Corporate 401(k) >$50mm - $100mm
Plan at a Glance
TOTAL PLAN ASSETS/PARTICIPANTS: $61 million/407
PARTICIPATION RATE: 99.4%
AVERAGE DEFERRAL RATE: 10.28%
DEFAULT DEFERRAL RATE: 6%
DEFAULT INVESTMENT: Vanguard Target Retirement Funds
AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT/ESCALATION: Yes/Yes
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION: 100% on 4% and 50% on 5% - 6%
employees, " says Lynn Sweet, benefits associate at Badger
Mining. " Our main workforce is high school graduates, and
they're out working in the field. "
Group Benefits Administrator Lynn Sweet
T
he mostly blue-collar workforce at Badger Mining Corporation
(BMC), a family-owned producer of industrial silica sand
products, headquartered in Berlin, Wisconsin, has some impressive
retirement-savings numbers. The 401(k) plan has a 99.4%
participation rate; the deferral rate of non-highly compensated
employees (NHCEs) averages 10.28%; and participants have an
average account balance of $155,019.
Jennifer Johnson, the company's associate development
leader, arrived at the company in 2016, after working in banking.
" When I came to Badger, I was astonished at the participation
rate and the average contribution rate, " she says. " I really do
think those things are because of the plan design. "
The company's employees average 43 years old, and most
work at BMC's mines or in its sand-processing facilities. " Maybe
one-third of our workforce is college-educated and professional
36 PLANSPONSOR.com April - May 2019
Many Ways to Help
The plan's NHCE average deferral rate of 10.28% compares to
a 12.97% rate for highly compensated employees (HCEs). All
Badger Mining associates who are 20 or older and work at least
one hour annually may participate in the plan, and participants
get 100% immediate vesting.
Badger Mining first implemented automatic enrollment for
the 401(k) plan in 2008, subsequently upping the default deferral
rate from 3% to 6%. Using plan design to show BMC employees a
path to saving and investing for their retirement has worked out
well for them. " The majority of our employees are blue collar, and
they don't understand finance and investing, " Sweet says. " They
really just want someone to tell them what to do. "
The company gives 20% of its annual profits back to its
employees: 10% goes to a quarterly cash bonus for all, and 10%
is put into a pool used for discretionary cash bonuses paid for
accomplishments such as completing a special project.
" We noticed, a few years ago, that we weren't seeing many of
our associates take advantage of putting that extra money away
for their retirement, " Sweet says. " We said, 'We need to help them
put in more.' That's when we went to the automatic increase. "
So the plan added 1% automatic escalation, in 2014. " The
first year, we had some concern that people would be upset, but I
never heard a peep from anybody, " Sweet says.
http://www.plansponsordigital.com/plansponsor/april-may_2019/TrackLink.action?pageName=36&exitLink=http%3A%2F%2FPLANSPONSOR.com
PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANSPONSOR - April/May 2019
