There are two components to CalSavers registration: Registering your company Registering your employees  To register your company, go to the CalSavers website. In the Register box, enter your Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) or Tax Identification Number (TIN). You’ll also need to enter your access code, which can be found in the letter or email from CalSavers, sent to the individual listed as the business owner with the California Employment Development Department.

The CalSavers Retirement Savings Program was set up by law to ensure that all California employees have a simple way to save for retirement. As of June 30, 2022, the law will apply to all employers with five or more employees over the age of 18, with no minimum hourly or tenure threshold. If you do not provide a retirement plan (see Qualified Alternate Retirement Plans below), you must register with CalSavers.

Every registered employee has a CalSavers account, whether they choose to opt in or out.  If an employee opts out within 30 days of registration, they will not have contributions withdrawn from their paycheck. Their account will remain active, however, if the employee decides to opt in later. Opting out anytime after the initial 30-day period will stop future contributions. Any funds that have already been contributed to CalSavers can remain in place, or they can transfer or roll over funds to another Roth IRA.

Once you have registered your company with CalSavers, and submitted your list of employees, you will need to set up Hourly as a CalSavers payroll delegate. This is done in your employer CalSavers account. Choose either My delegates or My payroll representatives on the left, and click Add New on the right.  Set Hourly as the payroll vendor, with full access. You will also have to specify the person at your company who will be the Hourly admin, with admin or full access permissions.

Unlike with a traditional IRA, the CalSavers IRA has no requirement for withdrawing funds by a certain age or at a certain time. Employees can also make their accounts available to one or more designated beneficiaries. So they can let their assets grow tax-free for as long as they like. But, if needed, employees can withdraw funds at any time, by submitting a request via the CalSavers website.  If they meet the criteria for a qualified distribution, there are no taxes or penalties.

After you register your company and your employees in CalSavers, they will send you, as the employer, an employees list. This list indicates who has and hasn’t opted in, and how much your participating employees are contributing, calculated as a percentage of their gross pay.  It is then the responsibility of the Hourly admin in your company to update employee benefit settings in Hourly. Note that an employee can also update their own settings, if they have access to those settings in their Hourly app.

Within 30 days of registering your company, you’ll need to submit your roster of employees into your company’s CalSavers account. Required employee details include SSN / ITIN, name, birthdate, and contact details.  Note that W-2 employees are eligible to participate in CalSavers from their first day of employment, regardless of hours worked per week or how long they've been working. Employee contributions in CalSavers start from the first payroll following the 30-day notification period.

After configuring an employee's CalSavers contribution in Hourly, you'll want to verify that the deductions are correct. To verify an employee’s CalSavers contribution in Hourly, click Payroll on the left and choose the pay period.  Browse or search for the employee. Note that the employee must have hours worked during the selected pay period. Click the employee’s three-dot icon at the right, and choose View Paycheck. Open the Employee tab, and under Deductions, you should see Roth IRA - CalSavers.

Once an employer registers their employee list with CalSavers, their employees will automatically be registered for CalSavers with their own account. CalSavers will contact each employee with account details. After receiving account details, employees have 30 days to opt out of CalSavers.  Employees enrolled in CalSavers can choose how they want to contribute to the plan. The default savings rate is 5% of gross pay, which each employee can accept or change.