W2 Contract "Employee" Without Access to 401k Benefit

[winnedafoo]

Hello, and thank you in advance for your time.

I recently finished fellowship, and started working Per Diem at Kaiser in California.  They pay their per diem W2 income and consider them "employees" of Kaiser, instead of independent contractors.

HOWEVER, they do not provide any option of contributing to the company 401k that is available for all other employees.

1.  Are they allowed to do this?  I thought that all employees at a company have to have access to the company retirement program.

2.  Do I have any other options outside of your basic IRA to save for retirement?

I will likely be a per diem employee for two years or maybe more as there are not many associate positions available in my region, so putting some money away would be great.

I currently am payed $175/hr, so am in the top tax bracket, without any write offs.

Thanks so much!

[ACN]

Unfortunately, this is how some companies work.  I'm moonlighting during fellowship currently as a "fee-basis" employee without benefits.  I get a W2 and no benefits.  So, to answer your questions.

1. Yes, they can.

2. Taxable account. TIRA (however, you should avoid this so you can backdoor Roth).

[Peds]

1. yup. you should reconsider a different position if you value more retirement space.

2. you mean rIRA im assuming. and yes, the rest is taxable. it can be very cheap and efficient so dont fret too much.

3. keep looking for positions. you never know what you will find.