Agency Automatic Contributions - 401(k) Retirement Glossary & Terminologies

Agency automatic contributions is a benefit provided to federal government employees that participate in a thrift savings plan, and that they receive 1% of their pay in the form of matching contributions, or rather agency automatic contributions in this case. This is done regardless of whether the working individual elects to make his/her own contribution or not.

For instance, if a federal government employee elects to make a 7% contribution towards his thrift savings plan, he will receive an equivalent amount of contributions matched by the government. This match will include 1% in the form of agency automatic contributions and 6% in the form of agency matching contributions. Thus, think of agency automatic contributions as a given, whether the employee contributes to a thrift savings plan or not, he will receive 1% from the government in an automatic agency contribution.