A new retirement program available to workers in Rhode Island who currently aren’t offered such an opportunity will soon launch, and we believe it is a good example of proactive, responsible government that is worthy of applause.

The RISavers program, beginning in the spring of 2025, will automatically opt in both full-time employees and seasonal employees who work at least 120 days out of the year. It will be required of any employer that currently doesn’t have a retirement plan to offer the program to employees.

In Rhode Island, many of those employers are small businesses whose owners lack the time or expertise to administer a retirement-savings program. Now they can offer it without administering it.

While the idea of such a widespread mandate – for both employers and employees – might seem a tad authoritative, employees are free to opt out of the program at any time, and employers are not expected to match contributions to the plan, which is operated by the state in the form of a Roth IRA.

We think it is an important and worthwhile program for a few reasons.

The program, first and foremost, provides a low barrier of entry toward the growth of a retirement plan where automatic contributions taken from paychecks are taxed as normal income, but withdrawals down the line are not. It does this without burdening small business owners to take on the expense and time required to set up retirement accounts or match contributions, which might be financially unfeasible.

The program also provides a method for Rhode Islanders to shore up their retirements that doesn’t rely solely on Social Security, which remains imperiled due to a looming insolvency problem.

According to recent testimony from U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, by 2035 the contributions made into Social Security will cover only 83% of the benefits that it promises to nearly 70 million Americans.

Regardless of whether Washington politicos will get their acts together enough to pass meaningful legislation that addresses this looming financial disaster – and regardless of whether certain Republican lawmakers get their unfathomable wish to slash into Social Security for a shortsighted budgetary windfall – it is obviously wise for states like Rhode Island to join a cohort of 19 other states that have started similar programs to provide an option for more people to save toward retirement outside of that avenue.

Retirement is one of those things that seems unattainable for so many, and the RISavers program is one step to make it more achievable for the roughly 170,000 hardworking Rhode Islanders who currently have no retirement plan available to them through their workplace.

Furthermore, retirement saving is one of those things that becomes infinitely more attainable the earlier you start. Having a program like RISavers be mandatory for employers – and setting it up as an opt-out program for employees – will ensure that more people begin incorporating this as a normal part of their financial reality, which will only benefit them in the long run.