Many New York employers are just now learning about the state’s retirement plan requirements. With the first deadline approaching, it’s something businesses should start to understand!
By March 18, 2026, employers with 30+ employees must either offer a retirement plan or register for New York’s Secure Choice Savings Program.
Many employers are surprised to learn that doing nothing is not an option. If your business meets the requirements, you must either offer a plan or certify an exemption before the deadline.
To help clear up the confusion, Aron Hollander from MegaPay recently sat down with Chesky Weinberger from TopazHR to walk through how these mandates actually work.
You can watch the full video here:
If you'd like a deeper breakdown of the New York State’s program itself, we also wrote a guide on the Secure Choice Savings Program here.
For now, keep reading to learn more about what you should know.
A 401(k) is a workplace retirement savings plan that's offered by employers. They let employees contribute and invest a fixed dollar amount or percentage of their pay toward retirement. This happens automatically through payroll.
As an employer, your main responsibility is providing access to the plan.
To clarify: You are not required to match employee contributions. But you can, if you'd like to make the benefit more attractive to employees.
Many Americans are not saving enough for retirement and some aren’t saving at all. Only about 60% of Americans have a retirement plan in place.
Without a retirement plan provided by their workplace, most people never get around to setting one up on their own. When savings happen automatically through payroll, participation increases significantly.
That’s why states are stepping in. The goal is to make retirement savings easier for employees while reducing long-term reliance on government assistance programs.
New York's new retirement savings requirement is rolling out based on company size.
March 18, 2026: Employers with 30+ employees
May 15, 2026: Employers with 15–29 employees
July 15, 2026: Employers with 10–14 employees
If you don’t already offer a retirement plan, you’ll need to either:
The Secure Choice program is designed to be simple.
• Employees are automatically enrolled
• Contributions go into a Roth IRA
• The account belongs to the employee and stays with them if they change jobs
As an employer, you do not contribute to this account. Your role is mainly to facilitate payroll deductions (this is where MegaPay can help!)
A private retirement plan will usually offer more flexibility.
• Higher contribution limits (Roth IRAs only allow $7,500/year)
• More investment options like mutual funds and ETFs
• Optional employer matching
Many private plans can also link directly with your payroll to make it easier for your employees to make contributions.
Even before mandates existed, many businesses offered retirement plans to help attract and retain employees.
Benefits play a major role when candidates evaluate job offers. A retirement plan shows that your company is thinking about employees’ long-term financial security.
For smaller businesses competing with larger employers, that can make a real difference.
Employees often ask what happens if they need the money before retirement.
Depending on the plan, they may be able to:
• Take a loan from their 401(k)
• Request a hardship withdrawal for certain financial emergencies
• Roll the account into another plan if they change jobs
However, early withdrawals can "trigger a 10% early withdrawal penalty, on top of income taxes." So this is generally considered a last resort.
There are two paths to choose from:
• Enroll your employees in Secure Choice
• Offer a private retirement plan like a 401(k)
At MegaPay, we help businesses integrate retirement plans directly with payroll so contributions, reporting, and compliance run smoothly in the background.
Because when payroll and benefits are set up correctly, it becomes one less thing you have to think about!