Facts about Illinois Secure Choice

Illinois was the first state to pass legislation establishing an auto-IRA, in 2015, and the second to go “live,” in 2018.  In 2022, Illinois’ expanded its program to require employers with 5 to 24 employees and no retirement plan to automatically enroll their workers, who are allowed to opt out.  Previously, the requirement only applied to firms with 25 or more workers.  

To date, Illinois has 7,643 employers submitting payroll deductions and 153,704 workers with funded accounts (see Table 1).

Table 1. Overview of Illinois Secure Choice

Source: Illinois Secure Choice, Office of the State Treasurer (2025).

As of April 30, 2025, 7,643 employers in Illinois were submitting payroll deductions to Illinois Secure Choice in the last 90 days (see Table 2).  Among firms that have registered, not all have completed setting up their payroll systems. 

Table 2. Number of Illinois Secure Choice Employers with Payroll Deductions in the Last 90 Days

Source: Illinois Secure Choice performance dashboards, Office of the State Treasurer (2025).

Employers subject to the mandate that do not comply must pay an annual fine of $250 per eligible employee if noncompliance extends 90 days or more after the notice.  If the period of noncompliance extends past one year, the annual fine rises to $500 per employee.  The program is also open to employers who are not subject to the mandate and self-employed individuals who wish to participate. 

To date, the number of employees with assets in Illinois Secure Choice has reached 153,704.  Given the early stage of the program, average account balances are modest.  Contributions made in the first 90 days are invested in a money market fund; after that point, the account balance and future contributions are defaulted into a target date fund.  As of the most recent month, 38 percent of eligible workers chose to opt out of participating (see Table 3).

Table 3. Selected Illinois Secure Choice Employee Outcomes

^a The participation rate is not necessarily equal to one minus the opt-out rate.  For more discussion on participation rates, see Quinby et al. (2019).
Source: Illinois Secure Choice performance dashboards, Office of the State Treasurer (2025).

The program, which is intended to eventually become financially self-sufficient, had assets under manage­ment of $236.5 million by the end of February 2025 (see Table 4).  To pay for its operating costs, Illinois Secure Choice charges an annual fee of approximately 0.75 percent on program assets.

Table 4. Assets in Illinois Secure Choice

Source: Illinois Secure Choice performance dashboards, Office of the State Treasurer (2025).