oh boy, where does one begin with you. I use to teach 4th graders, and I really do not remember it being this difficult. I'll give it one more try, but next year, brownslave. You sit at the front of the class. When we enter into the 401 K, we chose how much per paycheck we wish to contribute. But!! there is a maximum per year you can contribute into the 401K (pretax). That is a maximum per year. You can choose many different percentages per paycheck, but the yearly maximum will still be held in compliance. That maximum was about $18,000 for 2015. This maximum has been going up every year, normally approx $500. Then you max contribution goes up accordingly. 2015, the max was approx $18,000.
I think here is where you really get lost. Company's will sometime off a company match, up to a percentage of an agreed amount. sometimes 3%, it may be 6% ! Stay with me brown, it's going to get tricky for you. If that agreed amount is (hypothetically) 6%. That means the company will match your weekly contribution into the 401K to 6%. If you contribute $100 a week, the company will contribute $6 ! That is 6% of $100 ! Are you with me, brown?
But!! regardless of how much you contribute a week, YOU cannot contribute, more than the max allowed by the IRS. Which in this example is $18,000! So, when you get to the $18,000 max allowed, you can not contribute anymore into the 401K (pretax, after tax is different). So, if you were to make larger contributions, (hypothetically) say $1,000 a week. Your contributions would cease at the end of the 18th week, because you have not contributed the max of $18,000!!! I bet I lost you on that last curve, huh brown?
So, by extension. Since you can only contribute $18,000 and the company is only matching up to 6%, the company in theory will not contribute any more than 6% of $18,000, which equals $1080 !!!!
Yes, the company only matches 6%, but you can contribute more. But you can't contribute more than the legal max of $18,000!!
Again, 6% of $18,000 (max) is $1080.
Sorry Brown. But that's all I got. You have may to attend my summer school if that wasn't clear enough for you.