401k match is 75% up to 6%. Also over the past couple years they are eliminating unqualified people on Merck's healthcare benefit (i.e. divorcee spouse) to lower their costs while at the same time they up the out-of-pocket expense for the employee.
I will agree with you on the pension. The new pension is a joke and I expect by 2019 there will be an exodus of people to benefit from the old Merck pension before everyone is on the new cheaper pension payout. They constantly change the pension to remain solvent and I don't see it as a great benefit for current employees that remain after 2019.
The stock has been flat for the past year and we are back to pre-market crash in 2008. Since then there has been numerous mass layoffs, pipeline grabs, and cost reductions. Over the past few years they stopped being an R+D company and just a development company. If Merck truly wants to become the #1 Pharma company, as Ken reminds us, we have a long long way. Ken needs to really commit and purge a great number of middle management across the board. Lot's of $$$ tied up for people hiding out while not contributing in a meaningful way.
