HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut's minimum wage will be increasing in the new year. The wage will increase from $15.69 per hour to $16.35 per hour, a 66-cent increase.
The minimum wage is increasing again to comply with Public Act 19-4, which Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law in 2019.
When the bill was signed in 2019, the minimum wage was $10.10 per hour, and for the following five years, the minimum wage went up from $11 per hour to $15 per hour. This past year, the minimum wage went up from $15 to $15.69, adjusted based on the calculation of the U.S. Department of Labor's (DoL) employment cost index (ECI). Minimum wages in years to come will change each year based on those calculations, and cannot decrease below what the data from the DoL indicates.
“This law that we enacted ensures that as the economy grows, the wages of low-income workers can grow with it,” Lamont said. “This is a fair, modest adjustment for workers who will invest their earnings right back into our economy and support local businesses in their communities.”
About 60% of Connecticut's minimum wage earners are women, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"While the nation’s economy grew, the income of minimum wage workers stayed flat, making already existing pay disparities even worse, especially for the already economically disadvantaged," said Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. "This is a policy that benefits everyone and provides more financial security to families, especially women and people of color.”
The 66-cent increase came from the ECI increasing by 4.2% over a 12-month period, which ended on June 30, 2024.
The new $16.35 per hour minimum wage will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Restaurant owners said the pay difference will impact all of their employees.
"It affects our kitchen staff and how that works is it’s a trickledown effect," James Cosgrove, owner of Salute in Hartford, said. "Meaning everyone that’s making minimum wage which right now is a handful of people, they get a bump. But when they get a bump, inevitable it means that everyone else that works gets a bump also.”
Cosgrove said he's used to the increase at this point.
“Just because you’re paying more you try not to make the guys have to work any harder because honestly since COVID has ended or since COVID, the work ethic is just a little different than what it was five years ago," Cosgrove added.
Willie Fair, owner of Hartford County's Soul Bowls, said increasing the minimum wage is a good thing.
“I feel like across the board groceries, everything has been going up but people’s salaries haven’t gone up so I feel like minimum wage helps that," Fair said. "But it shouldn’t be only the minimum wage workers I feel like salaries in general should reflect the economy. So I feel like this is a good for our employees.”
Although Fair said this increase won't impact their customers, Cosgrove said ever since the law went into effect in 2019, they have had to increase their prices.
"It's not geared up to help small business owners, but it is fair for people who do manual labor in the back of the restaurant business they’re getting their fair share now," Cosgrove said.
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