Skip to content
The Mandate Monitor

MERIT: next employer deadline June 30, 2027

In effectChecked November 7, 2026Run by Maine Retirement Savings Board

Short answer

Maine requires employers with 5 or more employees that have been in business at least two years and don’t offer a qualified retirement plan to register for MERIT, the state’s automatic individual retirement account (auto-IRA), or certify an exemption. The first deadlines were in 2024; now businesses that become eligible are notified each year and must act by June 30 of that year. Enforcement began in 2026, with fines per covered employee that rise to $100 starting July 1, 2027.

Next date: June 30, 2027: Registration deadline for employers newly notified in 2027 (5+ employees).

Does your payroll handle MERIT? See the free state route and the 5 payroll systems with help docs that cover it.

MERIT deadlines

  1. · Retirement mandate

    Registration deadline for employers newly notified in 2027

    5+ employees

  2. · Retirement mandate

    Maximum penalty rises to $100 per covered employee

  3. · Retirement mandate

    Registration deadline for employers newly notified in 2028

    5+ employees

Dates already passed (9)
  • : Maximum penalty rises to $50 per covered employee (through June 30, 2027).
  • : Registration deadline for employers notified in 2026. (5+ employees)
  • : Penalties begin: up to $20 per covered employee (through June 30, 2026).
  • : Registration deadline for employers notified in 2025. (5+ employees)
  • : Statutory date by which every covered employer must offer the program. (5+ employees)
  • : Registration deadline for employers with 5–14 employees notified in 2024.
  • : Registration deadline for employers with 15 or more employees notified in 2024.
  • : MERIT opened to employers by end of January 2024.
  • : P.L. 2023, c. 167 enacted, extending employer deadlines and setting the current penalty schedule.

What employers have to do

  1. Use the Access Code from your MERIT notice to register at meritsaves.com, or certify an exemption, by June 30 of the year you’re notified.
  2. Enter your pay schedule and payroll provider and upload all employees 18 or older, adding each new hire no later than their 120th calendar day on payroll.
  3. After employees’ 30-day opt-out window, start payroll deductions and send contributions every pay period, no later than the 15th of the month after the month they were withheld.
  4. Keep the roster current: add new hires, mark people who leave, and handle seasonal layoffs and returns in the portal.
  5. Don’t contribute or match. Employers have no fiduciary role in the accounts.

Handling MERIT in payroll

The free route: register directly with the state

You can register and report on your own through Maine Retirement Savings Board. You’ll still need your payroll to send the employee contributions each pay period.

Payroll systems with a help document covering MERIT

SystemWhat the documentation saysLink
ADP RUNThe MERIT help center lists a 360-degree integration for ADP Run that runs through Payroll Integrations, a third party that charges employers a monthly fee. Read the program’s help doc, Nov 7, 2026See plans for ADP RUN
GustoGusto’s auto-IRA help article lists MERIT among the state programs that integrate with Gusto through Vestwell, which adds a "Vestwell State IRA" deduction to payroll. Read their help doc, Nov 8, 2026See plans for Gusto
Paychex FlexThe MERIT help center describes a 360-degree integration with Paychex Flex (Select and Pro) that receives contributions from payroll and sends employees’ savings-rate changes back. Read the program’s help doc, Nov 7, 2026See plans for Paychex Flex
QuickBooks PayrollThe MERIT help center describes a 360-degree integration with QuickBooks Online Payroll (a QuickBooks Online plus Payroll subscription) that receives contributions from payroll and sends employees’ savings-rate changes back. That help center lists QuickBooks Online Payroll as supported and doesn’t mention Workforce plans. Read the program’s help doc, Nov 7, 2026See plans for QuickBooks Payroll
Square PayrollThe MERIT help center lists a 360-degree integration with Square Payroll; employers request it by emailing their Square Payroll representative. Read the program’s help doc, Nov 7, 2026See plans for Square Payroll

Listed alphabetically. We may earn a commission from these links; it never decides who’s listed.

How MERIT works

Default is 5% of wages into a Roth individual retirement account (IRA), rising by 1% each January until it reaches 10%. Employees can choose any whole-number rate from 1% up, or opt out during their 30-day notice period or any time after.

No fee to employers, and state law doesn’t require or allow employer contributions. Savers pay asset-based program fees.

Questions employers ask

Who has to follow MERIT?

Maine employers (for-profit or nonprofit) with 5 or more W-2 employees, counting part-time workers, that have been in business at least two years and haven’t offered a qualified plan in the current or two prior calendar years. The statute excludes employers not in business during both the current and preceding calendar year. Eligibility is reviewed annually based on the prior year. Covered employees are 18 or older and must be added once they’ve been on payroll 120 days.

How do employers get an exemption from MERIT?

Employers that offer a 401(a), 401(k), 403(a), 403(b), Simplified Employee Pension (SEP), SIMPLE individual retirement account (IRA) or 457(b) plan must still certify the exemption, online at meritsaves.com with the Access Code from their notice or by calling 833-608-8811. The same process covers employers with fewer than 5 employees and businesses that closed or were sold.

What happens if an employer doesn’t comply?

Under 5 M.R.S. § 173(4), an employer that fails to enroll a covered employee without reasonable cause can be fined for each covered employee for each calendar year or part of one: up to $20 from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, up to $50 from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, and up to $100 on or after July 1, 2027. An employer is deemed to know about a failure after 3 communications from the program, and no penalty applies if it exercised reasonable diligence and fixes the failure within 90 days of when it knew or should have known. Penalties can be waived for reasonable cause. Late remittance of withheld contributions is treated like misappropriating wage withholdings. The Attorney General enforces and collects, and MERIT says paying a fine doesn’t make an employer compliant; it started enforcement in 2026 against employers that missed their 2024 and 2025 deadlines.

Everything employers in Maine must do ·Retirement mandates in every state

Sources

  1. 5 M.R.S. §§ 171–179 (Title 5, ch. 7-A), as amended by P.L. 2023, c. 167
  2. Employer program details and next deadline, MERIT (Maine Retirement Savings Board) (read Nov 7, 2026)
  3. MERIT Enforcement: What Maine Businesses Need to Know (June 23, 2026), Maine Retirement Savings Board (read Nov 8, 2026)
  4. What does compliance for Maine’s workplace retirement requirement mean? (January 26, 2026), Maine Retirement Savings Board (read Nov 7, 2026)
  5. Seasonal businesses guidance, Maine Retirement Savings Board (read Nov 7, 2026)
  6. MERIT board home page (law history, program opening), Maine Retirement Savings Board (read Nov 7, 2026)
  7. MERIT Program Description (default rate and auto-increase), MERIT / Vestwell (read Nov 7, 2026)
  8. 5 M.R.S. § 171, Definitions, Maine Legislature, Office of the Revisor of Statutes (read Nov 7, 2026)
  9. P.L. 2023, c. 167 (LD 1082), approved June 12, 2023, Maine Retirement Savings Board (copy of enacted law) (read Nov 7, 2026)
  10. P.L. 2025, c. 744 (LD 355), approved April 16, 2026 (funding only), Maine Retirement Savings Board (copy of enacted law) (read Nov 7, 2026)