Employers who offer retirement plans have the choice of offering a defined benefit or defined contribution plan.  Defined benefit means that employees can plan on a minimum monthly payment when they retire based on their current salary.  Defined contribution means that employees can plan on a monthly contribution related to salary but monthly payments once they retire will depend on the performance of the stock market on the diversity of their protfolio.  

In a defined benefit plan, the employer bears the risk and in strong economies often may not have to make contributions which had historically been the case.  However, in a depressed or unpredictable market, employers often have to conribute more than they might otherwise have been accustomed or planned for.  In a defined contribution plan, like a 401(k) employers may choose how much to contribute in order to match an employees contribution, this contribution is necessary regardless of market performance and the employee bears all the risk.

As the market has become more volitile and portfolio less diverse and therefore less secure or stable private sector employers have have stopped offering defined benefit plans with some raiding or converting them and leaving employees without retirements or with substantially less then they expected and worked for all their lives.

Meanwhile, fewer employers are offering any retirement plans let alone the minimal support of a defined contribution plan with or without matching.

By offering participation in the public retirement system to private sector employees the State of New York can stem the tide if not reverse it as we reorient long term planning towards a secure retirement for each and every New Yorker that they can count on.