FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON, MA (June 30, 2025) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, slammed the Massachusetts Legislature today for slipping the “Secure Choice Savings Program” into the FY2026 budget without hearings or public input into the expansive regulatory scheme.

“Without a public hearing to determine the financial impact on Massachusetts small businesses and their workers, the state legislature has blatantly shoehorned a major policy change without any oversight or public input into its new $61 billion FY2026 budget,” said Christopher Carlozzi, Massachusetts state director for NFIB. “This massive, wide-reaching new program mandates that businesses of 25 employees or more enroll their workers into a state-run retirement plan or face hefty penalties and legal action. Small businesses already deal with a plethora of state-imposed payroll deductions ranging from UI taxes to PFML, as well as a new pay transparency mandate, they do not need the additional burden and compliance costs of yet another.”

Secure Choice Savings Program bills were filed in past legislative years and are on the docket again for the current session. When those bills appeared before the Joint Committee on Financial Services it allowed for public comments on the legislation’s fiscal impact, but now the legislature has persisted in circumventing the public hearing process and opted to conceal this major policy change in a massive budget bill with hundreds of other subject matters and topics. Additionally, the newly proposed program threatens a $250 per employee fine if a business fails to implement this policy. It also allows employees to bring a civil action against their employer.

“Again, lawmakers’ policy choices and pro-small-business rhetoric are in conflict,” continued Carlozzi. “This Secure Choice Savings Program is a major policy change that will affect a great deal of residents of the Commonwealth. Workers must affirmatively opt out if they do not want money deducted from their paychecks. Was this policy ever vetted by the public during the current legislative session? Did it receive a public hearing for employer and worker stakeholders to comment on its impact? Or was it instead buried in a consolidated budget amendment along with hundreds of other items?”

“NFIB supports efforts to identify barriers to retirement savings, especially given the prevalence of low-cost savings options already available in the marketplace,” concluded Carlozzi. “However, we do not support another payroll mandate on employers forcing them to manage and administer a new state-run program or face hefty fines and lawsuits.”

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For more than 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.