States - Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives

State Programs 2023: More Programs Are Open and Enrolling Workers, Smaller States Actively Explore Partnership Opportunities, While Other States Continue to Introduce Legislative Proposals

State Program Performance Data and Trends - Charts and Tables

State-by-State Metrics of the Benefits of Expanding Access to Retirement Savings

2023 STATE PROGRAM STATUS

Since 2015, one or two states each year have enacted new state-facilitated retirement savings programs. During the 2023 state legislative sessions, there have been at least 22 states that have introduced legislation to establish new programs, amend existing programs, or form study groups to explore their options. As of May 15, 2023, two new programs have been enacted this year – Minnesota (auto-IRA) and Missouri (MEP). In addition, Vermont changed its existing program from a voluntary MEP to an auto-IRA program.

Since 2012, at least 47 states have now acted to implement a new program, study program options, or consider legislation to establish state-facilitated retirement savings programs.

As of May 15, 2023, there are 18 states that have enacted new programs for private sector workers (and 2 cities, although they will not move forward to implement due to state legal and program actions) and 14* (see caveat below about the Hawai’i program model) of these states are auto-IRA program states.

2023 STATE LEGISLATIVE ACTION

Visit the CRI Supporters Homepage to access the 2023 state legislative map, detailed information on the progress of state program implementations, the State Resource Center and much more.

2023 State Program Information Map
Click on this map to view quick links for program states
Click here to view 2023 map with detailed state legislative activity updates (login required)

	Legislative proposal and/or study commissions in 2023

Programs enacted (2012-present)

	Auto IRA

	MEP (Voluntary)

	Combination (Voluntary) – Payroll Deduction IRA and Marketplace

	Marketplace (Voluntary)

	Recent state efforts (2012-2023)

	No recent state efforts

2023 STATE PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION UPDATES

20 Programs (18 states and 2 cities)

To date, new programs have adopted one or a combination of these four models:

Auto-IRA (employer participation required if no plan is already offered)
Payroll deduction IRA (voluntary)
Multiple Employer Plan (MEP) (voluntary)
Marketplace (voluntary)

There are now 20 enacted retirement savings programs (18 states and 2 cities**) for private sector workers.

Individual Retirement Account (Auto-IRA)	Voluntary Payroll Deduction IRA	Voluntary Marketplace	Voluntary Open Multiple Employer Plan (MEP)
California (active) Colorado (active) Connecticut (active) Delaware Hawaii* Illinois (active) Maine Maryland (active) Minnesota New Jersey New York New York City Oregon (active) Virginia (active) Seattle, WA Vermont***	New Mexico	New Mexico Washington (active)	Massachusetts (active) Missouri

*The new Hawaii program is a variation on the auto-IRA model. Eligible employers must notify their employees about the program and, if employees choose to opt-in to the program, employers must then facilitate contributions to the programs.

**New York City’s program will no longer be implemented because New York State enacted an auto-IRA program and New York City would now become part of the state program. The Seattle, WA program is on hold indefinitely pending state legislative action.

***Vermont has changed its state program from a voluntary MEP enacted in 2017 to an auto-IRA program in 2023.

As of May 15, 2023, 8 of the 16 state programs (6 auto-IRA – CA, CO, CT, IL, MD and OR) and 2 others – MA (MEP) and WA (Marketplace)) are open to all eligible employers and workers. VA is currently in its pilot phase with full launch expected by July 2023.

For an overview of all the state programs (with hyperlinks to state program websites and additional information), see State-Facilitated Retirement Savings Programs: A Snapshot of Plan Design Features (23-02, May 31, 2023 UPDATE).

PROGRAM LAUNCH AND EMPLOYER TIMELINES

The experience of the more mature auto-IRA programs (i.e., OR, IL, and CA) demonstrates that state programs can shorten the timeline for onboarding employers. For example, the most recent auto-IRA program to launch – MyCTSavings – has a 12-month timeline, opening to all eligible employers on April 1, 2022, with a final deadline of March 30, 2023.

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Auto-IRA programs:

Oregon: OregonSaves opened to employers in 2017, and it is currently completing the onboarding of the smallest employers (those with 4 or fewer employees), which is scheduled to be completed by mid-2023.

Illinois: Illinois Secure Choice rolled out three of its five waves of eligible employer registrations between 2018 and 2019, but two new waves of smaller employers were authorized to be added in 2021 (the program expanded the number of employers covered by law from those with 25 or more employees to those with 5 or more employees). The completion of the fourth wave (16-24 employees) is scheduled for November 2022, and the completion of the fifth wave (5-15 employees) is scheduled for November 2023.

California: CalSavers opened to all eligible employers in July 2019 and it is currently in its final wave enrolling employers with 1-4 employees by December 31, 2025.

Connecticut: MyCTSavings launched its employer pilot program at the end of October 2021 and opened to all eligible employers on Apri1, 2022. The first wave of the program (for employers with 100 or more employees) was completed in June 2022; the second wave (26-99 employees) was completed in October 2022; and the third and final wave (5-25 employees) has a March 2023 deadline.

Maryland: Maryland$aves launched its pilot in June 2022 and the full program launched on September 15, 2022.

Colorado: The Colorado Secure Savings Program launched its pilot program in October 2022 and opened to all eligible employers on January 18, 2023.

Virginia: The retirement savings program facilitated by Virginia529 opened its pilot program in February 2023, with a projected full project launch scheduled on or before July 2023.

Programs in Maine, New Jersey, and New York are still developing their implementation timelines.

It is important to note that any employer can registered to participate in a state program at any time and does not have to wait for their enrollment wave or phase to do so. The deadline serves as a comply by date.

Other State Programs: The Massachusetts’ CORE MEP opened for enrollment in October 2017, and the Washington State Retirement Marketplace opened in March 2018.

State Partnerships: As of May 2023, Maine’s board has expressed interest in entering a partnership arrangement with Colorado and Delaware’s board has agreed to explore partnering with another state still to be determined.

In November 2021, the Colorado Secure Savings Program and the New Mexico Work and $ave Program signed a first-in-the-country Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) to pursue a formalized partnership agreement for their auto-enroll IRA programs. The MoC highlights areas of collaboration including shared program administration and financial services, marketing and outreach support, program evaluation and research, as well as data collection and participant privacy. The Colorado program also has developed a prototype interstate agreement as a basis for partnership discussions with other states.