What % of salary do you put in your pension per month and why?

Albermarle

Before 40, I was in a non contributory DB scheme, so zero.
approx 40 to 45 - 4.5% rising to 6% + employer similar
45 - 50 - 6% rising to 9% + employer about the same
50- 55 - 11% + employer 9%
55- 61  - 30 to 35% ( max £40K pa including tax relief and employer contribution)

eastcorkram

25%, me plus 5% employer , salary sacrifice. But the value of the SIPP seems to drop more than the amount going in each month 😔

redlightbulb

Late 30's.  Employer 3% me about 17%.
Auto enrolment employer's contributions are a pittance so have to top it up a fair bit.
Looking to up the overall contributions to 25% 

Exodi

Employee 10%, Employer 5% SalSac (though I'm in my 30s). I think my wife would kill me if I increased it further (though I'm always tempted as I pay higher rate tax).

You guys from this thread need to get me an interview at your companies - 20% employer contributions, 18.3% employer contributions, etc absolutely bananas!

Are these private companies? What sectors?

Nevergonnaretire

Crikey I'd love my company to pay 20% contributions, that's awesome.

For years I paid 10%, which is the most my company will match. I've now upped it to 20% (company still matches only 10%).
I'm 50 now and desperately want to retire before 60 if I can, determined to make it happen.

Albermarle

Exodi said:

Employee 10%, Employer 5% SalSac (though I'm in my 30s). I think my wife would kill me if I increased it further (though I'm always tempted as I pay higher rate tax).

You guys from this thread need to get me an interview at your companies - 20% employer contributions, 18.3% employer contributions, etc absolutely bananas!

Are these private companies? What sectors?

Sometimes when a ( usually large ) company previously had a DB scheme that was stopped, they would offer a relatively generous % for a new DC scheme, to sweeten the pill. No idea if this applied in the examples you highlighted, but it is one possibility. 

TheBanker

Albermarle said:

Exodi said:

Employee 10%, Employer 5% SalSac (though I'm in my 30s). I think my wife would kill me if I increased it further (though I'm always tempted as I pay higher rate tax).

You guys from this thread need to get me an interview at your companies - 20% employer contributions, 18.3% employer contributions, etc absolutely bananas!

Are these private companies? What sectors?

Sometimes when a ( usually large ) company previously had a DB scheme that was stopped, they would offer a relatively generous % for a new DC scheme, to sweeten the pill. No idea if this applied in the examples you highlighted, but it is one possibility. 

My company actually increased the employer contribution last year. It was part of a change to the benefits package as we were having trouble filing vacancies. I think they realised that 'access to a website giving discounts at a range of retailers' wasn't cutting it!

Prism

Exodi said:

Employee 10%, Employer 5% SalSac (though I'm in my 30s). I think my wife would kill me if I increased it further (though I'm always tempted as I pay higher rate tax).

You guys from this thread need to get me an interview at your companies - 20% employer contributions, 18.3% employer contributions, etc absolutely bananas!

Are these private companies? What sectors?

As long as the company offers salary sacrifice it doesn't matter what the employer contribution is, only the total package of salary plus pension. My industry tends to focus on wages over salary.

Alexland

Early 40s and I put in exactly enough to avoid higher rate tax which uses most of the annual allowance. The % varies through the tax year as for the first 3 months I only put enough in to get max employer contributions as I get a bonus on 2 of those months (April and June) which I let burst at the 2% NI rate. Then for the next 9 months I make big contributions to reach my year end income target saving NI at the 12% rate. My April bonus is fixed but my June bonus is variable and if it looks like it is going to pay high then I also make high pension contributions in May payroll as I need to be careful not to sal sac below minimum wage during the 9 months which would give my employer a problem. Scheduling my income in this way saves me around £1k pa of NI which is extra money in my bank account.

I grow a bit tired of doing this for so many years so would like to make lower contributions and clear some mortgage especially now interest rates are going up but I can't bring myself to pay all the extra tax. My plan is to eventually clear the mortgage using the tax free lump sum. Just under some pressure to maintain a high enough income until I can access pensions (my SIPP seems to have protected access at 55) but have been filling a S&S LISA since launch which could be used as a backup (at penalty) if my career doesn't last long enough.

Kerreh

Private sector, sal sacrifice, 5% from me, 5% from employer (the max they'll contribute and that's an inherited term.. they only offer up to 3% for new joiners now)
I'm 40... I feel like I'm stuck in a robbing Peter to pay Paul cycle... if I pay more into my pension I have less to contribute towards my mortgage and vice versa