{"id":103625,"date":"2026-02-03T06:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/103625\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T06:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:30:13","slug":"what-is-phillysaves-a-look-at-the-citys-proposed-retirement-plan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/103625\/","title":{"rendered":"What is PhillySaves? A look at the city\u2019s proposed retirement plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jack Tomczuk<\/p>\n

Voters, through a question on the May 19 primary ballot, will decide whether Philadelphia<\/a> should have a program that automatically sets up a retirement account for individuals without access to plans through their employer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The initiative, known as PhillySaves, is designed to help residents become better prepared for their retirement and old age, particularly if they work for a small business.<\/p>\n

City Council unanimously approved legislation last month providing for the ballot question and program specifics<\/a>, and Mayor Cherelle Parker signed the bills two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Who would be eligible?<\/p>\n

Anyone who works in the private or nonprofit sectors for a Philadelphia-based business or organization that has at least one employee and has been in operation for a minimum of two years would be covered under PhillySaves, provided that their employer does not offer a 401(k) plan, pension or other retirement benefit.<\/p>\n

Legislative officials have estimated that more than 200,000 Philadelphians would qualify for an individual retirement account, or IRA, through the program.<\/p>\n

Independent contractors and sole proprietors are not eligible; however, the text of the bill indicates that lawmakers may expand the program to include those groups in the future.<\/p>\n

How would it work?<\/p>\n

Employees who work for a covered business or nonprofit would automatically be signed up to contribute to their PhillySaves retirement plan through a payroll deduction.<\/p>\n

When the program launches, the default contribution will be set at between 3% and 6% of the individual\u2019s income, according to the legislation. Participants will have the opportunity to opt out or change the deduction percentage.<\/p>\n

The account will be a Roth IRA, unless the individual decides to open a traditional IRA or contribute to both types of accounts.<\/p>\n

Employers will not cover any costs. The plans will likely be managed by a third-party firm, overseen by the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board, which will be created if voters approve the ballot measure.<\/p>\n

When would it launch?<\/p>\n

Legislation authorizing the program stipulates that PhillySaves should begin accepting contributions no later than July 2027.<\/p>\n

The board will be permitted to roll it out \u201cin a phased approach as needed to facilitate the ease and effectiveness\u201d of the initiative, according to the bill.<\/p>\n

Has this been done elsewhere?<\/p>\n

PhillySaves is based on a government-backed auto-IRA model that debuted nearly a decade ago in Oregon.<\/p>\n

Two cities and 17 states have authorized similar programs, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts<\/a>. Pennsylvania is not among them.<\/p>\n

Who would serve on the board?<\/p>\n

Nine people would serve on the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board, the legislation states.<\/p>\n

The mayor and Council president would each get four appointees. Each would need to name an employer representative (from a chamber of commerce-type organization), an employee representative (such as a labor union leader), a retiree advocate (from AARP or a similar group) and an investment expert.<\/p>\n

One member of the board would be appointed by the City Controller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jack Tomczuk Voters, through a question on the May 19 primary ballot, will decide whether Philadelphia should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,50050,50048,50049],"class_list":["post-103625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-retirement-plan","tag-phillysaves","tag-retirement-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}