How It Works

Summary of how the “MAC SMART” Pension works:

• Participating employees sacrifice a cash salary equivalent amount to the contributions they are making to the company’s approved pension scheme;
  
  
• The employer agrees to increase its contributions to the pension scheme by an equivalent amount;
  
  
• Employees are notified that the new arrangements will automatically apply from a particular date unless they opt out in advance;
  
  
• If they do not opt out at the start, employees cannot opt out again until the first anniversary of the commencement of the scheme, unless they experience a ‘lifestyle change’ (marriage, birth of a child, separation or divorce, death of a partner or child, change from full-time work to part-time);  Participation in the scheme brings about a change to the terms and conditions of employment of the participants; and
  
  
• The participating employee’s previous gross salary (“base salary”) remains the yardstick for other issues (e.g. the calculation of overtime pay, annual salary increases or salary- related benefits).