How generous are the top 50 S&P 500 companies’ 401(k)s?

Overview: Bloomberg ranked the 401(k) plans of the 250 biggest companies in the S&P 500 as of February 21, 2014.

Methodology: Each company was given a score based on its filings with the Department of Labor for 2012, the most recent year for which data were complete. The score was based on seven criteria, which were weighted. The criteria are: potential company match (50%); additional company profit-sharing or retirement contribution (15%); years to vest (15%); investment offering of stock, bond, international index funds (10%); automatic enrollment (10%). Nine companies received the highest score on the match because they made contributions that at least doubled those of their employees. These figures have single asterisks in the chart. Deductions from the score were made for companies that paid their company match at or after year-end (-3%) or required employees to work at least one year before receiving the company match (-3%). The ranking considered the 401(k) benefits that a new, nonunion and salaried hire would generally receive. The ranking excluded data from additional pension plans offered by the companies outside of the 401(k) plan. Ten companies were excluded because they couldn't be ranked. Four -- Intel, Kinder Morgan, Procter & Gamble, and W.W. Grainger -- didn't offer a match, yet contributed in other ways to the 401(k) plan. The other six -- AbbVie, Berkshire Hathaway, Emerson Electric, General Dynamics, Johnson Controls and Omnicom Group -- had different plans at multiple subsidiaries or didn't provide enough data in the filings.

Source: Bloomberg, firms' Form 5500 from U.S. Department of Labor, companies

GRAPHIC: EKENE IJEOMA / BLOOMBERG VISUAL DATA