Low-wage workers in Connecticut are scoring a pay bump this week, as the state’s minimum hourly wage is slated to increase from $11 to $12 on Tuesday.
The wage hike comes more than a year after Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill increasing Connecticut’s hourly minimum wage to $15 over a four-and-a-half year period. The new law first raised the state’s minimum wage from $10.10 per hour to $11 on Oct. 1, 2019.
In total, the new hourly minimum wage will increase to $12 on Sept. 1; $13 on Aug. 1, 2021; $14 on July 1, 2022; and $15 on June 1, 2023. The federal minimum hourly wage is $7.25 per hour.
After the per hour rate reaches $15 in 2023, the minimum wage every Jan. 1 thereafter will be adjusted by the percent change in the federal Employment Cost Index (ECI) for all workers’ wages and salaries for the one-year period ending June 30 of the preceding year.
“For too long, while the nation’s economy grew, the income of the lowest earning workers has stayed flat, making already existing pay disparities even worse and preventing hardworking families from obtaining financial security,” Lamont said in a statement late Monday. “This is a fair, modest increase, and the money earned will go right back into our own economy, supporting local businesses in our communities.”
The hourly rate hike did, however, face push back last year.
Opponents of Connecticut’s recent change have argued that the $15 minimum wage will be expensive for towns and cities, which will bear an estimated $24 million in costs due to the increase, according to a state analyst’s report.
Wage advocates, however, say the boost is a much needed and long overdue benefit for more than 330,000 workers who were earning the state’s minimum wage, especially given Connecticut’s high cost of living.
In recent years, several national companies with Connecticut presences have also increased their wage floors, including Target, Wells Fargo, Amazon, and Bank of America.
Hartford HealthCare, Middlesex Health and TicketNetwork in 2019 each announced a $15 minimum wage for their employees.
Elsewhere in New England, the minimum hourly wage is $12.75 in Massachusetts, $12 in Maine, $10.96 in Vermont, $10.50 in Rhode Island and $7.25 in New Hampshire.
This story has been updated to include comment from Gov. Lamont
