Connecticut’s minimum hourly wage increase is just one of several upcoming law changes that will impact employers and consumer habits.
More than 330,000 workers earning the state’s minimum wage will receive a 90-cent pay bump on Tuesday to $11 as part of a five-year plan to raise the minimum hourly wage to $15.
In May, Connecticut became the seventh state to adopt a $15 minimum wage amid pushback from Republican state leadership and some of the state’s largest business lobbies.
Nearly half of the more than 350 businesses recently surveyed by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA), the state’s largest business lobby, said they plan to cut staff to manage the state’s first minimum wage increase since 2014.
Andrew Markowski, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), said the wage increase will be especially detrimental to small businesses.
“We hear from small businesses that currently pay their employees more than $11, or even $15 an hour, that they too are impacted by this law because their workers feel slighted if their pay doesn’t also rise,” Markowski said. “ We tried to explain to lawmakers the ramifications of raising the minimum wage so high, so fast, but those who voted for this law weren’t listening.”
Also Tuesday, employers of all sizes will be required to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training for employees over the next year. New employees hired after Oct. 1 will need to receive training within the first six months.
The previous law only applied to employers with 50 or more employees.
Tuesday will also welcome higher taxes and fees on every day consumer purchases and digital services, which is meant to align certain retailers and e-commerce companies with other businesses that have long been subject to charging sales tax.
Among them, taxes on digital downloads like ebooks and video games and streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix will increase from a 1 percent tax to the state’s 6.35 percent sales tax rate.
Taxes on restaurant orders and prepared foods, including those served at food courts or items sold at supermarkets like sandwiches and coffee, will also rise from 6.35 percent to 7.35 percent.
The state’s so-called excise tax on alcoholic beverages will also climb 10 percent, while the tax will be cut in half on craft brewery beer, saving consumers $200,000 in the state’s two-year, $43 billion budget.
Meantime, several new laws were recently enacted on Aug. 1, including a ban on plastic bags.
Here’s a list of other new taxes and fees beginning Oct. 1:
- Short-term rental providers will begin charging guests the state’s 15 percent hotel tax. Online hospitality service Airbnb has generated more than $5.2 million in hotel tax revenue since it began collecting the levy in 2016.
- The legal age to purchase smoking products such as cigarettes and vape products is rising from 18 years old to 21.
- The state will increase its fee from $35 to $100 for car dealers receiving trade-in vehicles from individuals who are also buying a new or used vehicle from them.
