There are millions of workers in New York who lack retirement savings accounts to supplement Social Security in old age. For these workers, many of them lower income and people of color, a comfortable retirement — or any retirement at all before death — could be elusive. 

But a bill under consideration by Gov. Andrew Cuomo could enable the creation of individual retirement accounts for these workers at small businesses. 

"We think that this is not only an issue of making sure people are financially secure, but that they have the dignity going into their retirement that they can live securely," said Kristen McManus, the associate state director for the AARP in New York. 

Workers can opt out of the program and their employer doesn't contribute to the account or have direct costs associated with it. If approved, the program would bolster workers amid ongoing uncertainty in the labor market and the pandemic.

The bill has backing from 25 groups, including a range of community and good-government organizations.

"This is really little to no cost for businesses and a great plug-and-play solution for a problem business owners want to address as well," McManus said. "It also gives people not just money in retirement, but a little bit of padding and some savings that they can dip into if they need to during tough times like we've seen in the last couple of months.”

Still, the state's main business lobbying organization raised issues with the legislation and pointed to the mandate on employers to inform their workers about the account.  

"I think philosophically I would like to have some control over my investment dollars rather than an automatic mandated enrollment," said Lev Ginsburg, the government affairs director for the New York State Business Council. 

The retirement accounts would be built on the Secure Choice Savings Program, which is yet to be implemented in New York after it was approved several years ago. 

"It creates uncertainty for employees and employers alike," Ginsburg said. "We're mandating an automatic enrollment of my retirement dollars into a program that will come on board without really any indication of what it's going to be."