[tshaddox]

I assumed that employer contribution matching is generally a fixed percentage of the employee’s salary each pay period, which means that if you don’t contribute in one month you forfeit that percentage of your salary and thus about 8% of your total possible employer matching.

[endianswap]

At least in my case as an engineer at a smaller tech company my 401k (and corresponding match) maxes out each January because that's when bonuses are granted.

[InefficientRed]

Note: you can set your contribution % to 0 in January and then change it in February. This can be worthwhile because you then DCA throughout the rest of the year. On the other hand, by contributing everything in January, you get the employer match earlier. And over a 30 year career it's likely a rounding error.

[InefficientRed]

I've seen it work different ways and different companies. It's either a % of salary or a % of your gross paycheck. In the latter case, bonuses can mess things up.