There are two situations that can prevent employees from getting the full amount of an 401k employer's match money on contributions to their 401k or any other similar retirement plan.
The first One is contributing too little or small amount to the plan.
And second one is Too Much, Too Soon.
Commonly, an employer match gets credited to a participant's plan account only when the participant contributes to the account as well. If participants reach the annual federal limit on contributions before the last pay period of the year, their ability to contribute to their account gets suspended until the start of the next year. When they stop contributing to their account, they stop receiving the employer match.
The IRS has released the new 401k contribution Limit for 2012, which has become now $17,000 for the year 2012,$500 more than the last year. This increase came after 4 years.
The maximum Catch up limits for 2012 is now become $5,500