The Secure Choice Savings Program mandated that businesses with more than 25 workers remit a portion of their employees’ pay into a state-run retirement program. Workers are automatically enrolled and must choose to opt out. Businesses that failed to comply faced fines of $250 per incident (eventually raised to $500) while allowing workers to take civil action against employers.

In April, NFIB first raised concerns that the state House included the Secure Choice Savings Program in a consolidated budget amendment mixed in with hundreds of other earmarks. This was after lawmakers said they would not include any major policy initiatives in the budget.

NFIB issued a press release notifying the media and the general public about this hidden new program passed by lawmakers.

After successfully advocating that the Senate not include the new mandate in their budget, it ended up in a budget conference committee between the two branches. Unfortunately legislators included the House language in the final budget and we notified the media of our disappointment. Even the Boston Globe referenced this unvetted program in the budget in their July 2, 2025 editorial, writing:

“Given those decisions, though, it’s unclear why lawmakers did use the budget for one complex decision: creating a new statewide employee retirement plan for private sector workers who lack access to employer-based plans. This may be good policy, but as the National Federation of Independent Business pointed out in a press release, it imposes compliance costs and potential penalties on employers and is the type of policy that should be created with input from stakeholders in carefully crafted legislation.”

The next step involved contacting Governor Healey requesting she veto the section of the budget. NFIB’s letter stated this program added new compliance expenses for businesses, while risking penalties and potential civil suits. We also continued to criticize the lack of legislative process as the policy never received a public hearing or sought public input at any point this session. Governor Healey agreed with our assessment and returned the outside budget section with an amendment creating a study of the issue until they can better understand its impact.

Proactively, NFIB urged legislators not to reinstate the mandate if veto overrides occur in the Fall. We ask that you take a moment to contact your lawmakers urging them to uphold the governor’s amendment!