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Automatic enrollment of employees in PPK retirement plans in Poland, again

By Daniel Olejnik and Leonie Spackman | January 5, 2023

Employers in Poland should prepare to automatically enroll their workers who currently aren’t in a PPK retirement plan, effective March 1, 2023.
Retirement|Health and Benefits|Ukupne nagrade
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All companies are required to automatically enroll new hires age 18 to 54 in a Pracownicze Plany Kapitalowe (PPK) retirement plan within three months of starting work, unless the employee submits a declaration to opt out of PPK participation. Employees who have opted out face the possibility of automatic enrollment every four years (beginning in 2023), subject to advance notice by the employer, unless they opt out again.

Key details

  • All existing opt-out declarations expire on February 28, 2023. By this date, companies must inform employees who previously opted out and are age 18 to 54 that they will be automatically enrolled in a PPK plan unless they submit a new opt-out declaration form.
  • Companies of employees who previously opted out and do not submit a new opt-out declaration by April 1, 2023, must enroll these employees in a PPK plan, effective March 1, 2023, and begin transferring employee and employer contributions to the PPK provider, based on March compensation, by April 17, 2023. Employees can still opt out at a later date.
  • The minimum employer contribution rate for PPK plans remains 1.5% of covered pay for all employees; the maximum rate is 4.0%. The minimum employee contribution rate remains 2.0% of covered pay (0.5% for workers earning up to 1.2 times the minimum wage) with the option to contribute up to an additional 2.0% of pay on an after-tax basis.

Implications for employers

Employers should notify employees with current opt-out declarations that these will expire on February 28, 2023, and prepare to enroll such staff who do not submit a new opt-out declaration by April 1, 2023 (including the establishment of new PPK participation agreements for workers who have never participated in a PPK plan). Subsequent notifications of auto-enrollment will occur every four years (i.e., next one is end of February 2027).

As of November 2022, total assets in PPKs were $2.6 billion (11.5 billion Polish zlotys), according to government data. The total number of participants is 2.8 million, which is much lower than expected by the government, due to the number of employees opting out. The PPK is aimed at an eligible employee population of around 11.5 million, of which the Ministry of Finance estimated 75% would be enrolled. The median participation rate reported by companies surveyed by WTW is 37% (while government data as of November 2022 put the overall participation rate at 34%).

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