Thousands of small business owners and more than a million Marylanders they employ have a new way to save for emergencies and retirement. MarylandSaves offers workers throughout the state the opportunity to start a personal WorkLife Savings Account automatically funded from their paychecks.

The service is free for businesses and the state waives an annual $300 filing fee for those businesses that enable automatic employee enrollment. Employees can opt out at any time.

WorkLife Savings Accounts are Roth IRAs funded by employees through payroll deductions and are under each saver’s control; savers will have multiple investment options to choose from and can decide at any time to change their savings rate, change their investment options or opt out entirely. They can also withdraw their money or take their account with them when they change jobs.

However, savers don’t have to do anything: if they don’t opt out, 5 percent of their paycheck will automatically be saved. The first $1,000 will be contributed to an emergency savings fund and contributions beyond that will be invested in a target date fund based on the age of the saver. Visit MarylandSaves.com to learn more.