ORPP design details announced

And in order for DB plans to be considered comparable, they will need to be equal or exceed the benefits being offered through the ORPP. The minimum comparability threshold that earnings-based DB plans will need to meet is an “annual benefit accrual rate of at least 0.5%.”

Enrollment in the ORPP will be staged in four waves:

• Wave 1 – Jan. 1, 2017: Employers with 500 or more employees without registered workplace pension plans
• Wave 2 –Jan. 1, 2018: Employers with 50 to 499 employees without registered workplace pension plans
• Wave 3 –Jan. 1, 2019: Employers with fewer than 50 employees without workplace pension plans
• Wave 4 –Jan. 1, 2020: Employers with a workplace pension plan that’s not modified or adjusted to meet the comparability test as well as employees who aren’t member of the workplace’s comparable plan

For Waves 1 to 3, employer and employee contribution amounts will be phased in starting at 0.8% each in the first year, 1.6% each in the second year, and 1.9% each in the third year.

For Wave 4, employer and employee contribution amounts will be 1.9% each.

The ORPP Administration Corporation will contact all Ontario employers in early 2016 to verify their existing plans.

Employers with a a registered workplace pension plan that exists on Aug. 11, 2015 or that’s begun the process of registering one will be assigned to Wave 4.

“If the plan meets comparability thresholds by the time Wave 4 begins, the employer will not be required to enroll in the ORPP,” the government says.

Any employer that doesn’t have a workplace plan but sets up a comparable plan prior to its entrance wave will not be required to enroll in the ORPP.

Also read:

• What you need to know about the ORPP
• Ontario demands feds co-operate on ORPP
• Ottawa won’t co-operate on ORPP