I'm not sure. In a traditional pension scheme, the company kicks money into the pension fund, and this kick of money plus the internal investment income of the fund provides the assets to cover the liability. In modern 401k schemes, the company kicks some money (in addition to the employee kicking money) into the 401k to generate the internal investment income to cover the liability.

It would be a pay cut if the modern salary plus employer match were less than the prior salary plus employer contribution to the pension fund. I do not know if this is the case (especially when you maximize the match). I also do not know to what degree companies were underfunding the pensions in the past. My suspicion is that the upper-middle-class who maximize employer match are no worse off, perhaps better off, but that the median employee is worse off.