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State Treasurer Fiona Ma reminds employers that they are required to register for the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program before the June 30, 2022, deadline if they do not offer a private retirement plan and have five or more employees.
“Every Californian deserves a path to a financially secure future,” said California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, who chairs the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board. “CalSavers is here to make that a reality by ensuring all have an automatic way to save for retirement at work,” Ma said.
CalSavers was created to improve retirement security for all Californians, as nearly half of California workers are on track to face economic insecurity in retirement age and a majority of the state’s private-sector employees lack access to a retirement plan at work. CalSavers has a simple menu of investment options, portable accounts, and a multilingual client services team. For employers, CalSavers is easy to facilitate, there are no employer fees, and no employer contributions are allowed.
“With more than 56,000 employers already a part of CalSavers, we know how to get employers on board so their employees can save for their future,” said executive director Katie Selenski. “It’s a simple process and our team is standing by ready to make it even easier.”
More than 262,000 workers have already started saving, their assets totaling more than $221 million. This early growth is a positive sign for improving retirement security as the program completes the latest phase of its initial roll out.
Enforcement actions and financial penalties are underway for larger employers that missed their deadlines in 2020 or 2021. Those employers are encouraged to register as soon as possible.
In 2012, California was the first state in the nation to pass legislation establishing an automatic enrollment retirement policy for private sector workers who lack access to work-based retirement plans. Authorized in final form in 2016 by Senate Bill 1234 (de León), the program began a limited pilot phase at the end of 2018 and launched fully statewide on July 1, 2019. CalSavers seeks to facilitate the largest expansion of retirement security since the advent of Social Security in the 1930’s and is already a model for a growing number of states seeking to establish a similar program. Learn more at www.calsavers.com.
